


Young Blood

by Missus_cupcake



Series: Modern Adventures in the World of Thedas [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Character Development, F/M, Gushy Romance and all that jazz, M/M, Modern Girl in Thedas, Slow Burn, Swearing like a Sailor, Tagging as I go, like realllllly slow burn, oh also there will be much profanity, solas is a lying liar, there will be angst along the way, we love but hate him at the same time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-06-26 09:18:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 55,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15660270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missus_cupcake/pseuds/Missus_cupcake
Summary: Friends, family, and an old, broken down car.A flash of light, screams of pain, then black silence.Lies, deception, and hiding your true self. Getting home safe is your only goal.But maybe this frozen heart can be melted by true love's touch?Nah, fuck that cliche shit.~Waking up in a world that you know, but don't know, is at the same time both terrifying and exhilarating. Knowing what should happen and what does happen are two vastly different things, but they find a way to make it all work out in the end. With magic and swords and shit, they should be able to get home without any trouble, right?Wrong.This world is chaos. An utter war zone, completely torn by the fighting factions. Going from a peaceful life to being thrown in the middle of a battlefield, their lives get turned upside down.Morals will be broken. Hearts will be shattered. Blood will be spilled.With her help, can they truly save this world?





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! My first time ever posting a work to ao3 (hope I'm doing this right!) and I'm happy to say I'm excited to share this work with you! A spin on the normal modern girl in Thedas works, so I do hope you will enjoy and stay along for the ride!
> 
> I know I'm late to the DA:I train, but I just got the game like two months ago and fell in love. I'd also like to apologize in advance for and inconsistencies that might appear, since I'm basing most things for this fic from previous playthroughs. If you have any tips or tricks for me, feel free to comment them or message me! Any help is very appreciated!
> 
> And now, onto the story~ Hope you all enjoy!

Mom always told me that I'd do great things in life. What a bunch of bullshit. 

Being the college drop out that I am, family disappointment feels more appropriate. Always, I’d always had big dreams for myself since I was young, but high school changes you, man. Takes all your hopes and dreams and places them in one huge blender and puts it one the highest setting. And _then_ they have the audacity to give it back to you, saying “Here you go!” and expect you to give a crap and pass all your classes with flying colors!

Oh, uh, sorry. Rambling, sorry. Whoops. I, uh, do that sometimes.

Anyways, moral of my story; I suck at life. At a minimum wage job in my hometown, I still live with my parents. They say its no big deal, that I’ll find my own place eventually, but _I can feel their shame._ Good thing is, though, that I’ve got my own car (read: my mom’s old busted up kia) and I can pay for gas – so you know what that means!

Road trip!

Summer’s just begun, and I’ve saved all my vacation days this year so far, so I’ve been able to get a week off work to do just that – a nice, relaxing road trip with my best friends. Or so I thought.

“HEY! Pass me the aux cord! It’s my turn, you’ve had it for an hour! HEY! Don’t ignore me!”

“No way José, passenger seat person chooses the music! The backseat hosts the kids and the snack holders!”

“I am NOT a kid! I’m only a year younger than you! Give it here!”

I give a sigh, focusing my attention on to the road, trying to ignore the bickering to my right. Yay, road trips. The rain puts a damper on everything, too. If I listened closely, I could hear the soft pitter-patter of raindrops on the windshield over the music playing through the car, so it was a little bit of a distraction from the arguing inside. It was some weird French song, probably, since it was Margaret’s choosing. God, I could feel a migraine forming already.

“Emily, leave it alone. Next time we stop, you can switch places and then play your music, alright?” I said, looking into the mirror to see her scowling right back at me. “Alright?”

“Fine.” She grumbled, leaning back into her seat. Next to me, Margaret seemed triumphant in her victory, returning to looking out the window and happily humming along to whatever song this was. I glanced back in the mirror, spying Connor still asleep despite the commotion going on around him.

With the relative silence once again, all I had left was my thoughts. This was supposed to be a fun trip, to help me forget the misery and woes of my adult life. A bunch of friends together without a care in the world, no parents and no responsibilities. It was such a nice day when we left, too. All sun shine and nice weather, a perfect day to begin our week-long journey, no real destination in mind – just to see the world outside our small province. But day two into our adventure, the weather began to turn foul, with rain starting early in the day, and now on day four its still going strong.

A new song starts up, one I’m familiar with this time. A smile sneaks its way onto my face.

“Really, Margaret? You’ve still got One Direction songs on your phone?” I laugh as she starts to lip sing and dance in her seat to the beat of the song.

“Uh, yeah I do. Why wouldn’t I? Its still a great bop, man!” she laughs as well, making her moves even more ridiculous. I look back to see Emily stirring out of her funk, to reminisce on old memories, dancing just as ridiculously as the fool besides me. Connor groans in his sleep, probably mumbling something along the lines of ‘you absolute morons’ in his head.

These are the moments that I relish in. Its been too long since the four of us have been together. After graduating together (well, except Emily, she was just a few years behind us) we all went our separate ways, to do what we want to with our lives.

Connor has been working as a licensed nurse this past year or so following his graduation, and his life feels complete at following his heart's desires. Margaret earned her bachelor's degree in education, and she continues to work as a substitute teacher until she can find a stable and suitable contract - she wants to teach at either the middle or high school level. And Emily? She just graduated from her four years of pre-med, and now she has plans of getting her doctorate to become a surgeon! What a bunch of successful friends I have!

Oh Emily, the special one of the bunch. My little sister, and despite what you’ll hear me say out loud, she’s my best friend of them all. With only being two years apart, we were so close as kids. But when I dropped out of university a few years back, we kind of grew apart. It’s my fault, I guess. It was just a tough time for me and I kind of pushed her and everyone else away…

Go away, sad thoughts! This is not the time for you, this is supposed to be a fun trip!

As the song fades out, another strange one takes its place. German, maybe? I’ve honestly got no clue anymore. But it sounds good, though, so I’ll give it some credit.

I’m pulled out of my thoughts by Margaret softly tugging on my sleeve. I scowled slightly, bringing my arm out of her touch.

“Y’know, if I was easily scared, we could have just lost control of the car and landed sideways in a ditch?” I grumbled.

“But you’re not! Sorry though,” she gave a sheepish smile, shrugging her shoulders a bit. “I just needed your attention for a sec! Look out my window, there’s _green_ lightning!”

I scoffed at her display for the bright lights, but I spared a glance out her window nonetheless. It was quite strange, seeing dark and light flashes of green appear out of the sky in one moment and the disappear in the next. Margaret continues to ogle the strange natural occurrence and I smile to myself at her childlike wonder.

“Hey, that doesn’t look very normal, fyi,” Emily states, looking towards the lightning flashes in the distance.

“Nah man, maybe its not actually green? Maybe its just the windows and the rain outside giving a weird effect on the color of the lightning?” Connor adds to the conversation. I jump a little in my seat, not realizing he was awake. He must have been woken up by the commotion surrounding this weird mystery.

“I don’t know. Its just lightning, I guess. It’s probably doing no harm.” I console them, returning to focus solely on the road in front of me.

The rain continues to pour down on us (or the car, I guess) and we settle into an eerie silence, another French song playing softly through the vehicle. We drive at a steady pace, the storm raging around us, the lightning still appearing every now and then.

“Hey, uh, Kandice? Is it just me or is the lightning getting closer?” Emily asks after a while, looking towards me for guidance.

“That’s not how lightning works at all. It’s all random and shit. If anything, it looks closer ‘cause we keep driving in that direction. Duh,” I explained, sighing at her irrational fear. I see Margaret shake her head in the corner of my eye.

“No, no, she has a point! It seems to strike the ground, wait a second, and then strike again closer towards the car. I don’t even hear any thunder and its flashed like ten times in the last like 20 minutes.” Margaret said, returning to look at the strange lights. I now notice, they _do_ look closer than they should be.

“Hey, y’know, maybe we should turn back, away from the weird shit? Just in case, oh, I don’t know, we might die?!?” Connor exclaims from the back seat, grabbing hold on the back of my seat, startling me a bit, making me swerve from the commotion. I quickly shoot him a glare in the mirror.

“Don’t do shit like that! For all we know it’s just a harmless trick of the eyes –”

My words get cut off abruptly as a bright flash of green lands just in front of the car, blinding me and everyone inside momentarily. I try to swerve out of the way, and in my blinded state we lose control of the car, the rain not helping, as we spin three times before it lands on its side in the middle of the road.

_The last thing I remember from this world is my little sister screaming. From pain or fear, I don’t know._

From the grey of the storm clouds to the bright green light that literally flashed before our eyes, now the whole world was a black screen, devoid of any life.  


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right! Second chapter, here we go! A bit longer this time, and only a day's wait! 
> 
> It won't be like this ever again probably lol, I work basically full time and school's starting up again soon, so I'm hoping to have a chapter every week or at least every other week for you guys.
> 
> Again, I hope you all enjoy this one too~

_Cold. So very cold. Like an unwanted blanket of snow covering my entire body. Yeah, its damn cold._

I don't know where I am, or how I even got here. Or if I'm even still alive. The last thing I remember is that damned green light and then losing control of the car in my panic.

Shit! That's right, I rolled the damn car!  _How can I worry about myself with the lives of my friends literally on the line!_ God, in my haze I completely forgot about the others! 

My body protests as I try to stand and make myself alive to the world once more. My arms feel like lead, and legs feel like they're glued to the ground. I groan in pain, huffing from the simple task of trying to stand up. I blink my eyes, but the world still remains dark and bleary. Now that I'm fairly aware of my situation, all I seem to hear is a faint ringing sound all around me.

_Damned tinnitus._

I finally get my arms underneath me, pushing upwards and trying to get my body to sit up on it's own. It's a lot of damn effort. My hands keep sinking into the ground - _is it snow? Its quite cold -_ but I soon get a hold of something more solid and I push myself upwards.

I'm gasping and panting now. I don't know how long it's been, time's basically a damn illusion to me now. It's ridiculous, right? Can't even sit up without breaking a damn sweat...

I try to open my eyes once again, to try and figure out what's going on around me. Still quite foggy, I can barely make out the shape of anything around me. All I see is a white blanket of a landscape around me wherever I look. 

Hey, wait, it's summer, right? Why the fuck is the world _white_ like _snow_? Where the _fuck_ am I?!?

I groan, and I bring my hands up to try and rub away the 'sleep' from my eyes. I blink rapidly, and this time, it only takes a few seconds for the world to focus around me. 

I can see a tree in the distance. That's good, I guess. My eyes aren't completely shot. 

With some sense of realism restored, I do a 180 with my head to look around me. Yup, still a white canvas, this time with a few trees and rocks all around. To me right, what looks like a rock face juts out of the ground and keeps rising until a ledge appears 10 odd feet above my head. Huh, maybe I'm on a mountain?

God, I don't fucking know anymore. 

Before I even try to stand, I take a mental tally of all my limbs. _Two arms? Yup. Hands? Yup. Do I have legs?_ Currently sitting on my knees, I situate myself so that my legs are right in front of me. _I’ve got two, plus the feet._ So, I’m relatively okay. With a great heave, I find some way to get on to these shaky legs of mine. With nothing to hold on to in my peripheral line of sight, I was like a damn baby deer trying to stand for the first time, all wobbly and ungraceful.

With barely working limbs, I make my way through the ankle-deep snow towards the closest thing I see: a rock. Just a regular grey, slightly rectangular rock, nothing special about it in any way on the surface, but I damn well bet its better to sit on that the snowy ground beneath me. Shaking now, either from the effort of walking on barely working legs or the strange middle-of-summer-snow coldness through my body, I still don’t know what the _hell_ is going on.

I sigh and rub at my eyes again. Shivering now, definitely from the cold – for I was _not_ wearing snow-appropriate clothing – I look around me once again. Still nothing memorable around me to give any clues of my whereabouts. I can hear the wind, now, but that’s about the only sound I can make out through this wretched snow-covered place. _God, I really hate the cold._

Suddenly, with my sense of hearing restored, I can faintly make out the sound of a stick being broken not to far from where I’m sat. I snap my head around – front, back, side to side – and just slightly to the left down a dip in the mountain, I see two figures approaching from below.

I scramble to my feet, gracefully falling off my rock – face first into the snow.

“Oof” I mumbled quietly, as my poor face becomes acquainted with this stupid white shit all around me. I hear the deaf footfalls of shoes on snow, now, as when I sit up from my short fall, I can see the two figures clearly now as they seem to be running towards me.

_Are they friends? Are they foe?_

One’s clearly a man, with short, messy brown hair, and the other a woman with long flowing locks of blonde. I squint, trying to make out their facial features. _Nothing. They’re too far away._

“KANDICE! ARE YOU OKAY?!?” The woman shouts as she continues to run, and my heart leaps in my chest. _I would know this voice anywhere!_

I jump to my feet, still a bit unbalanced, and I stumbled towards the two figures. We soon crash together, and I’m sure if they wouldn’t have caught me we would all have fallen backwards. I hold on to the woman for dear life, and tears suddenly fill the corners of my eyes.

“Oh my god, Margaret, you guys are okay… I though you died… I though _I_ died… god, I’m such a mess…” I sniffle, wiping away the few tears that made it to my cheeks. She gives me a small smile, a much-needed comfort after all that’s happened.

“Yeah, a _hot_ mess,” she laughs, and I can’t help but laugh along as I unattached myself from her hold of my shoulders.

“But you’re okay though? No bodily harm or any shit like that?” Connor adds, giving me a once over as I try to stand up straight. I give him a small nod.

“Yeah, I think so? My body’s just stiff and sore from laying god-knows how long in the cold snow.” I answered. Looking over them as well, I can see that they’re perfectly fine too.

_Good. Everyone’s okay. Me, Margaret, Connor, Emily –_

“WAIT! Where the _fuck_ is Emily!” I yell, stumbling backwards in my small outrage. Margaret reaches out to help me steady myself, as I pant, looking wildly around for any sign of her.

“We were hoping she would be with you. We woke up next to each other, so we were praying she’d have woken up next to you,” Margaret says gently, trying to soothe my worries.

_It doesn’t help._

“Wh-where could she be?? She can’t be out here all alone… who knows what kind of shit lives in these mountains... oh my god there could be bears! What if she’s been eaten by a bear! EMILY!!!” I cry, pulling myself from Margaret’s grip. I run in the same the direction they approached from, albeit on my still unsteady legs, hoping to any god there might be that they missed her on their way here. Before I can get too far, a force comes from behind me grabbing and binding my arms to my sides in one fell swoop, almost making me double over from the sudden action. _Like a very violent hug._

“Shh, calm down. We’ll find. She’s fierce, remember? Emily wouldn’t let herself be taken down by a lowly bear,” Connor soothes, as I let the tears fall freely now. I shake my head in disdain, knowing his words might be wrong.

_I can’t let her get hurt – or anything worse. I CAN’T let her be lost or alone or afraid… God, what would mom and dad do if I went home without her?!?_

“Hey now, calm down. Don’t get yourself so worked up, she’ll be fine. We’ll find her together,” Margaret says gently from one side, as I can feel her rubbing soothing circles on my arm.

The tears are gone now, and all that’s left are their tracks, and one final choked sob escapes my libs. I gently lift my arms, patting Connor’s so he’ll let me go. He does willingly. I rub away any stray tears and look upwards to stop any that might think of escaping.

_Wait._

_What. The fuck. Is that._

A giant, and I mean _giant_ , hole in the sky rumbles all around, with everything up above seemingly being pulled towards it, like some weird black hole. _And the best part? It’s the same freaky green as the lightning that caused this whole mess._

“The _fuck_ is that monstrosity above us?!?” I yell in surprised horror, looking back to my friends as they give me sheepish glances.

“We, uh, don’t really know. It was there when we woke up. I can’t believe you didn’t notice it before now. Connor had like a whole mini panic attack about it, not gonna lie,” Margaret shrugs, giving a devilish grin Connor’s way as he shakes his head at her antics.

“It was barely a panic attack, more like a stupid ‘we might die as the world comes to an end’ attack,” he mumbles, crossing his arm with a cute little pout on his face.

I look up to the sky again. Yup, the same weird shades of green, mixing and swirling and… expanding?

“Its growing,” I point out, still fascinated by its total weirdness. Every now and then, I notice, things keep flying out of its centre, and sometimes it pulsates and then emits a light green light and then keeps growing. Completely enraptured by this otherworldly creation, I barely have time to realize something coming right towards us from the centre.

“OH shit! Oh shit oh shit oh shit!” Connor curses, as he and Margaret look towards the fast-approaching green blob or whatever it is. All three of us scramble about, until we all almost fall over from the impact of the thing hitting the ground just in front of us, green light exploding from its point of impact.

Unholy screeching fills my ears, as I suddenly try to block out the horrid noise. I look up just in time to see some demonic creature rise up from where the blob hit the ground.

“Holy shit! The fuck is that Kandice?! What do we dooooo!” Margaret yells as she backs up, trying to create more distance between her and whatever the fuck that thing was. Everything seemed to slow down around me as I thought of something to do.

_Okay. Weird green light, and we wake up in some weird world. A giant green hole in the sky, and now some demonic creature is here for our souls or some shit._

_Think, think, THINK!_

Not being aware of anything around me, suddenly as I looked up I saw that creature mere meters from where I stood. With a shout of surprise, I stumbled backwards with my hand upraised to push it back if it got any closer. As I did so, a weird feeling went through my whole body.

With the blink of an eye, a spike of ice _flew from my hands_ and right into the creature’s body, making emit more unholy screams and screeches.

“Holy shit,” I whispered to myself. With no more time for thoughts, I channelled that same weird feeling and another spike of ice flew towards the demon – as it was indeed not of this world – and this time it hit the creature right where its heart should be. Another round of high pitched screeches and then it disappeared in a cloud of green smoke and shit. I stood still as all of my thoughts raced through my head.

_Ice. Flew from my hands. Hit a demon in the chest and killed it. Green hole in the sky…_

I was shaken out of my head by Margaret grabbing hold of me. I looked into her eyes to see fear and panic.

“Kandice! Thank god, you’re okay! What the hell just happened?!?” she exhaled, obviously holding onto a breath, waiting to see if I was okay. I breathed a sigh as well, not knowing how to explain to the two in front of me.

“That was a demon. It flew out of the sky, as you saw, but that’s not even half of the story. I know where we are now,” I explained as best I could for the moment, patting her on the shoulder to try and give her some sign of comfort. “We need to go, now.”

Without waiting for either of them understood what was going on, I broke off into a hard run towards where the centre of the hole was circling around. Before I even got over the dip they originally came from, my whole arm was wracked in pain, making me lose my footing and falling right in to the snow.

As I could hear their footsteps running towards me, I sat up and held my right hand in front of me. Green scars seemed to lace the palm of my hand, expanding and glowing at the same rate as the green breech above me.

_Wait. The temple and Haven are over that way quite a bit. I’m here with the mark. Emily is no where to be seen._

With a heavy sigh, I stand up and wipe off whatever snow I could.

_Things just got a lot more complicated._

 


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter today, woo! I am on a roll! I got off work early today, and thought, 'hey, let's write another chapter!'. And here I am, three hours later, with another, slightly longer chapter. Still more buildup, lots of dialogue, and a familiar face, I really feel like this chapter really sets up the story and the characters! I can only see good things coming from this!
> 
> Again, I hope you all enjoy this chapter too, and any feedback or tips are as always, much appreciated! Enjoy~

“Holy shit Kandice! Are you alright?!?” I hear Connor yell from behind me, as they soon approach where I fell. I look back to the two of them, not knowing what to say.

“Thank god you didn’t get too far down the hill! Who knows how bad you could’ve hurt yourself if you’d fallen down the side of the mountain or something!” Margaret exclaims as they both reach my side. I give her a weird look.

“That’s… not a very comforting though, dude. You don’t just casually tell people they could’ve died that easily. That’s weird,” I say, as she gives me a sheepish look in return. “But to answer you Connor… it’s a mark. That’s all I can really say for now.”

“Well that’s _so_ helpful Kandice! Yeah, just a mark, making the same weird light as that giant shit-hole in the sky! Nothing wrong with that!” he sarcastically remarks, and I shrug in response.

How am I exactly to supposed to tell my best friends that they’ve been sucked into a whole new dimension (or would you consider it a new world? A plane of existence? I honestly don’t know _how_ to describe it) and could potential be killed by either this world’s creatures or its war-torn citizens?

Yeah, not something fun to talk about.

I clue back in to the world around me to notice Margaret waving a hand in front of my face all crazy-like and Connor looking at me with a face of concern.

“Good! Welcome back to the world of the living! Any insight on how to survive the now demon-infested world we find ourselves in would be _oh so_ helpful right about now!” Margaret stares me down with those pale blue eyes of hers. I look away with a small look of guilt in my eyes.

I guess I have to remember that its not only me having to survive in this new world. I have to think about them, too, and also about trying to figure out wherever Emily ended up before something happens to her. It’s not only me that I have to think about, I have to protect them too from whatever come our way.

“Sorry, I was lost in thought. Didn’t mean to make you worry. I’ll explain what I can, but let’s find a way down this mountain while I do, okay?” I ask softly, looking to them for guidance. Connor nods his head in approval, making himself ready for any challenges that may oppose us, and Margaret smiles ear to ear, most likely regaining her sense of adventure and ready to face anything.

_If I had to be stuck in some stupid alternate dimension or some shit, I wouldn’t choose to do it with anyone else. I’ve got some pretty great people._

“Let’s go then!” With a small grin from myself, we begin to find a way down the mountainside, taking careful steps and watching where we placed our feet. A steady pace was set, and we were on our way towards the valley.

“First thing’s first: we’re not on Earth anymore, at least I’m pretty sure we’re not. Don’t look at me like that, Connor, it’s not the end of the world _yet._ We’re in Thedas, a world I once thought to be a place of fiction, but that’s not the case if we’re here, now is it? Oh, it’s spelt T-H-E-D-A-S Margaret, with like that kinda soft ‘H’ in there right? Oh, stop, you’re getting me off track!”

“Anyways, Thedas is the country. I’m pretty sure we’re in Ferelden, in my memory serves me right. No, I’ll write it down later, Margaret, we don’t have time for me to spell out every new world for you. Wh- I’ll tell you why not! The world is _literally_ falling apart and all you seem to care about is how to spell these weird ass names! We _do not_ have the time!”

“God, you guys are so hard to please!” I sigh in exasperation as we continue through this winter-wonderland. Or, I guess it would be a wonderland if it wasn’t riddled with demons and bears and other shit trying to kill us. _At least there’s no snowy mountain bears that I remember in-game. At least, I hope. Goddamn bears._

I spare a glance behind me to see Margaret with a sheepish grin over her face, and Connor looking just as done as I am with her crazy antics. I return to the task at hand as we come to a slight drop off, trying to get us all down without any serious injury or death-defying falls on our faces. Despite the cold winter weather, my heart is warm in my chest – without these guys, I don’t think I’d have stayed sane long enough to get this far. As a chilly wind weaves between us, I shiver and try to pull my light cardigan closer over my shoulders. _REALLY was not expecting this such cold weather!_

We restart our steady pace, moving up to a slight jog, as we come to an overlook that shows the valley down below. We were getting closer to the bottom, so you could now see soldiers and scouts heading up an old, beaten path towards where the Temple would have stood and where the breech originated – that mountain seemed to be just opposite the one we stood on currently. If I looked slightly to the left, I could see the faint outline of Haven in the distance now, although it was starting to get dark out. I came to an abrupt stop, and as they weren’t ready to slow down, we almost all fell over in to one big dog-pile.

“Look to my left – that’s Haven. That’s where we need to go before the sun falls completely below the mountain line. Who knows what will be lurking in the dark if we don’t make it there in time,” I point out the faint village in the distance to my friends, although shuddering at what _could_ be waiting until nightfall to strike anyone unawares.

“You still haven’t really explained how you know all this, yet,” Connor remarks as we begin once again, still trying to reach ground level. I mentally face palm myself at my ignorance.

“Well, for starters, if Margaret would stop distracting me with petty questions, you might have gotten some answers by now!” I shake my head in disdain, as Margaret makes some noise of protest behind me. “But anyways: Thedas, Ferelden, that’s where we are. I know this because this world is eerily similar to a video game I used to play all the time back in high school – “

“Wait! How the fuck can we be somewhere that’s not supposed to exist in real life?? This makes _no_ sense, at all!” Connor exclaims, most likely fuming from the ears and glaring a hole right through my skull. I roll my eyes at his clueless view of… whatever.

“Yeah, I know. It makes no sense, but to me, it kinda does. Just, trust me for now, okay? I know where we are because this is exactly how the start of the game begins, with the player character showing up from who-knows-where with this weird glow-y shit on their hand – just like me – but its not supposed to happen this way. If this were just like the game, I’d be a prisoner right now, cause like, their holy god was just murdered in the temple we must have been at and their under scrutiny and suspicion for maybe killing the one person that’s been keeping their whole world from falling apart and –”

“ _Wait_ we were where that giant green thingy originated from? A ruined temple or whatever, you say? How can you be so sure, huh?” Margaret interjects, as we round another corner, getting much closer to the bottom. I could _hear_ the commotion now, as more and more people could be seen scurrying about down below.

“Like I said, you’ll have to trust me on this – I know a lot about this world, but not a lot at the same time: I never really got into all the lore that some fans did. I just knew the basics and some secret tips and tricks here and there. But yeah, we sort of fell out of the green hole in the sky – they call it the Breech, or they will soon at least – and its basically a rip between their two worlds. The world of the living, where we are now, and the world of the ‘dreaming’ as some will say, which they call the Fade. The Fade is where their dead supposedly pass through before going on to the after life or whatever, but some spirits get caught on their way through – and when they get pulled out unwillingly, it changes their whole demeanor and then boom, ya got some demons there.”

I slow down and turn around to see dumbstruck looks on both their faces. I face palm, in actuality this time.

“What seems to be the problem?” I scowl, placing my hands on my hips, trying to catch my breath. Its getting darker now, and if I looked through the trees I could see the faint glow of torchlight coming from Haven’s direction.

“I have a _million_ more questions than when we started” Margaret said plainly. Connor nodded along to her words.

“I’ve just given up trying. I give up my dumb knowledge to you, o great and marvelous Kandice, knower of all things messed up and freaky like,” Connor adds sarcastically. I roll my eyes.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, and I’ll tell you more once I know we’re in a safe location, but I just need to warn you – anything about me knowing this world you’ll need to never speak aloud unless in private, with me. _No on_ can know _anything_ about us not being from this world. Leave all the talking and explanations to me, okay? If anyone asks you anything, say you don’t remember or that you don’t want to talk about it. Don’t make up some lie on the spot, we’ll figure out cover stories soon enough, so please, leave it to me,” I beg, sincerity in my eyes. If anyone found out about this huge secret of ours, we could be dead in seconds. And if they figured out everything that _I_ knew, I’d be dead before you could say –

“DEMON! It’s green and approaching us fast!” Margaret yells, pulling me from my thoughts. We’d made it off of the mountain, and now were walking the path through the thick forest surrounding Haven and area.

I whip my head around, searching the tree line for any sign of this supposed demon. Suddenly ghastly noises ring out all around me, and I spot the incorporeal form of a wraith not too far away, approaching fast just as Margaret said.

“Back up! Don’t do _anything_ stupid, alright?” I yell back to them, and they comply without any second thoughts. I turn back around, to face this stupid green bitch threatening my friends all stupid like.

With a deep breath, I try to channel the same weird feeling from before – it must be my mind automatically tapping into the Fade for my magical powers I somehow possess. I focus on the green blob coming my way, and with a lift of my right hand, I release the energy pent up inside and –

“Woah! Fireball! Awesome, man!” I exclaim despite the tense situation. The blast of fire seemed to hit the wraith right in the face, and it disappeared in a cloud of green smoke with unholy wails of what I could only assume were cries of agony.

“Jesus Christ Kandice! Just what are you doing there! You some magical girl now, eh?” Connor asks as they both run up behind me as the creature disappears from existence. I shrug my shoulders, now really knowing an appropriate answer.

“Let’s just keep going, all right? It’ll be completely dark soon.”

We pick up the pace now, following the weaving paths towards what I could only assume led to Haven. As we continued, I suddenly stopped. Margaret and Connor stopped just and front of me and both gave me weird looks.

“What’s the matter? You said yourself that we need to get to this village soon,” Margaret asks with concern in her voice.

“Yeah, I know, but… we can’t show up looking like this.” I gesture to all three of us, still in our somewhat summery clothes. “Loot the bodies around us, even just the leathers underneath the plate armour would be better that what we have on.”

With my words, they suddenly become aware of the several bodies littered on the ground, most likely dead from demon-related injuries. Without thinking twice, I turn around and spot someone who looks like they should be my size through my squinted eyes. I mumbled a soft apology to the poor solider underneath me, and I begin the pull their clothes off.

A couple minutes later, I finish getting all the clothes off the body and begin to strip (what do you expect? It’s dark out and these clothes _just_ might save me from being executed as I walked through the gates! Hypocrites…) and soon I’m all dressed up in some weird, uncomfortable leather pants and a wool tunic with a leather vest that snuggly fits all my chest area. Just in case, I also grab a thick pair of leather gloves to try and hide the stupid green glow still emanating from my palm. I begin to channel some more energy, and this time I try to keep a fireball within my palm to work as a makeshift torch.

After a few unsuccessful tries, it works out and I can now see a few feet in front of me. I turn back around to see the others in similar dress. Margaret found what looked like some wool or cotton pants that looked _way_ more comfortable than mine, with a light linen shirt and a leather jacket buttoned up halfway. Connor, though was the unluckiest of us all – an all leather outfit. Leather pants, leather shirt (jeez, I hope the boy has _something_ comfortable under all that) and some leather or hide boots.

“Just to let you know, if we ever get back home, I’m _literally_ killing you. No joke,” Connor mumbles darkly, walking all weird like with his new clothes. I shake my head, knowing he’d be damn well have a good reason to.

“Now, gather up your old clothes and the naked bodies, and bring ‘em over here. I’ll burn them together,” I say, gathering up my own and placing them in a small pile with one hand. I look back around to see looks of shock on their faces. “What? We can’t leave these clothes out in the open for someone to find, and naked bodies would be kinda weird to come across, even in a looted war-zone.”

It’s been a long day, and they barely resist – although Connor looks like he might throw up -  and soon there’s a small pile of clothes and three bodies laying on the ground. I say another quick apology and a small thanks to the soldiers beneath us, and I let the makeshift torch in my hand become a fireball and use it to light the pile on fire. It doesn’t take much coaxing, and soon the smell of burning flesh permeates my nostrils.

“C’mon, lets head out now. We should be relatively safe.”

We find our way back to the path in the dark, as my little torch has gone out, and we continue on towards Haven. No talking now, and I don’t dare disrupt their thoughts, so we walk in silence for a while.

Soon the torchlight of Haven’s gate appears, and the commotion is deafening to an unaccustomed ear. Soldiers and citizens alike scramble about in front of us, most likely trying to make some sense of this disaster. I lead the three of us through the throng of people, trying to make it towards the village’s closed gate. Like I expected, there were at least three soldiers guarding the closed doors. With a sigh, I lead us towards what could be our doom.

In the dim light, they never really noticed us until we were quite close.

“Halt! No one is to enter the village limits until Commander Cullen or Seeker Pentaghast allows it! All refugees are to remain in tents outside for this night!” The soldier shouts, and I resist placing my hands on my ears to block out his loud voice.

“I’m sorry to be a bother, but I was hoping to find my sister here: young, short brown hair that reaches her shoulders, dark brown eyes, about yay tall – oh wait, its dark, you probably can’t see my hand –“ I begin to explain to the soldier, although my words fall short as I notice the soldiers stiffen up as someone approaches our little group from the right.

“Commander, ser!” One soldier yells as he gives a salute to the approaching man I could only assume was the commander.

“What’s the trouble here, soldier?” The Commander asks, looking to one of his men, and then another, and then finally landing on my small group of misfits.

“Just a group of kids looking for their friend, ser! They must be among the refuges,” Another soldier replies, also giving the commander a salute. With a wave, the commander dismisses his men, and they run off in different direction, probably going to find some other work to do.

“So, you’re looking for someone, is that right? Is there anything I could do to alleviate some stress in these times of madness?” Commander Cullen asks. I look towards him in the torch light and _god was he taller than he appeared in game!_ I clear my throat, trying to think of the right words.

“Uh, yeah, that’s about right. My younger sister, she disappeared this afternoon before the world went to shit, and we’ve been searching all day long, and we came across your village and hoped that she may have sought refuge within the walls.” I explain as best I could, using the best vocabulary I could think of to try and convince the commander I was indeed from this time period.

“Well, like the soldiers must have explained, there’s nothing I can do for you tonight except find you an unoccupied tent for the night. The gates will be opened in the morning, and then we can look for your sister together then, alright?” Cullen asks, and I nod my head to his words. With a deaf gesture, he leads us off to the right where many tents stood silently in the dark.

It took only a few minutes to find a tent for the three of us, and I bade the Commander farewell for now. With a heavy sigh, I lifted the tent flaps and entered its oilskin interior, Margaret and Connor soon following me without any words between use.

With nothing left to do tonight but to pray for Emily’s safety, we all fell into fitful sleeps, with no dreams worth mentioning. Whether it was comforting, to have neither good nor bad dreams, or may it be an omen for the future, one could not tell at this moment in time.


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey its's ya boi back with another chapter today! I'm real excited for this one, and I hope it meets all your standards! 
> 
> I have the day off tomorrow - surprisingly! - and I hope to get maybe one or two chapters pre-written for the weeks that I don't have the time to sit and write one down.
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy!

I don’t know what time we fell asleep, but when I was woken up by the stupid sunlight pouring through the tent flaps and the stupid people walking about outside, it felt _way_ too early to be awake. With a groan, I rolled over in the uncomfortable leather sleeping bag – is this what they called a bedroll? – and tried to sleep for a few minutes more.

It seems my efforts were futile, as I could feel the other two beside me stirring as well, and once we were all awake, we had a mission to return to.

That didn’t mean that I still didn’t try. With another groan, I tried to bury myself farther into the blankets, trying to block out the world around me. _I was_ not _a morning person._

“Hey, Kandice, hey hey Kandice, wake up!” Margaret whispered next to me, poking my arm and upper back relentlessly, most likely trying to get me to wake up. All it did was annoy me and allow another groan to be released.

“Why do you have to be such a goddamn morning person, you moron?” I grumbled, finally sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to adjust to the surprisingly dim light within the tent. I looked to Margaret and saw that every present smile on her features, while if I looked past her I could see Connor barely looking alive.

“I want. To die.” Connor mumbled monotonously. With his words, I let out a small laugh. I shook my head at his antics. _At least I’m more of a morning person than Grumpy Pants McGee over there!_

“Oh, lighten up, it’s a new day and all that utter nonsense. We’ve got work to do, folks!” I clap my hands, standing up and stretching my body. With a slight crack, my back felt better, and then I began looking around my bedroll (yeah? That seems like the right way to describe what we slept on) for my vest and the gloves I found. The others seemed to have the same idea, Margaret finding her jacket and Connor lifting his leather shirt over a lighter, smaller leather top. After a few minutes, we all seemed presentable, and before we left the tent I threw my hair up into a loose ponytail with the elastic that somehow stayed on my wrist through this whole ordeal. Looking to my companions for approval, we shared a few silent words, and then we left the tent to begin a new day.

The only differences between last night and this morning was the difference in the lighting outside. With all the snow on the ground, I had to squint my eyes and almost shield them from the harsh sunlight that reflected off the surface. Also, since it was probably early, the only people that I could see awake were the soldiers who seemed to be on their way up to the ruined temple. I spared a small glance upwards, and there was the ever-growing breech, still pulsating and spewing green blobs and rocks every now and then. If I looked around our tent, I could see some of the refugees that the soldiers were talking about last night, but they mostly kept to small groups of the people they knew. I looked to the entrance gates, and lo and behold, they were open just like the Commander said last night.

We made our way towards the gate, not having as much people to weave through this time so it was a shorter journey, and there will still a few soldiers guarding the gate – most likely for safety purposes. As we approached, they didn’t say anything this time, so I had to be the one to initiate a conversation.

“Excuse me, where could I find the Commander?” I asked one soldier with my kindest voice possible. Behind me, I could hear Connor and Margaret snickering softly, so I shot them a quick death glare that shut them up right away. The soldier looked to my group with suspicion, looking us up and down, probably trying to figure out what three refugees would want with their Commander.

Before the poor sod had a chance to answer my question, I could see a figure approaching and I saw the soldiers visibly stiffen just like last night, but this time they all gave a salute and some weird war sound (like a loud ‘HA!’) – all in sync.

“Commander, ser!” A different soldier than I was addressing called out as the commander was within ear shot. I looked towards the approaching man, and _damn_ was he _way_ more intimidating in the sunlight. He was probably at least a head taller than me, at my meagre height of 5’4”. His hair was stunning, even; His blond locks seeming to glow from the wintery lights.

“Stand down, soldiers,” Cullen said with a small laugh, clapping one man on the back as he approached. “Am I to assume you are the same group as last night still looking for their friend?”

“Uh, yes sir. We were just wondering if we’d be allowed to look inside and around the village to see if we could find her. I wasn’t sure if there were like, special requirements that needed to be done… or if we could just enter and have a look around…” I answered the Commander meekly, although trying to come off like I knew what I was doing. _I didn’t want him to think we were suspicious and worth investigating! That would be_ bad!

“Well, if I am speaking honestly, I don’t entirely know if there _are_ any steps that need to be taken, but with everything in chaos now, I don’t think it would be a bother,” Cullen replied, giving a small smile of comfort. “Come, let us see if we can find your friend.” As he takes a step forward, he motions for us to follow him through the gate. I look back to Connor and Margaret and give a quick nod, and soon we find ourselves past the gate and within the limits of Haven.

_I don’t really want to distract him from his work, but I mean… if it somehow helps us find Emily, I’ll take any help I can get._

I discreetly look around as we walk through the village, and everything just seems so… surreal. I can barely keep myself from stopping and gawking at everything that _should not_ exist, but I try my damnedest to keep a cool face. Haven even seems… larger than in game. There seems to be more cabins in small clusters, and it feels more like a small village than just a temporary camp used as the new Inquisition’s base. It feels like… home.

We keep walking, and as I’m pulled out of my thoughts I realize that Cullen seems to be leading us towards the Chantry. I jump a little as Margaret paces herself beside me and taps my shoulder lightly.

“Hey, what’s that huge important looking building we’re headed towards?” she asks quietly in my ear.

“Its this village’s Chantry – its like their church, where their do all their worshipings and such” I reply, quietly as well, as to not provoke any intervention from the Commander in front of us. I’m sure he’d be pretty suspicious if a group of misfits like us knew nothing about the Chantry – even the poor must know _something_ about their world’s religion.

“I have a few friends in higher places, and I’m sure they’d be able to help you with anything that I wouldn’t be able to,” Cullen says after a while, as we find ourselves just outside the Chantry’s doors. With a held breath, I watch as he opens the doors and waits for us to all enter before him. Soon we are _inside Haven’s Chantry,_ like a dream come true… except, I guess, there’s demons and that whole ‘the world’s gone to shit’ deal, but still! The door snaps shut as he lets go of it, making me jump a little from the unexpected loud noise.

We pass a few Chantry sisters bustling here and there as we make our way towards the back of the building where another pair of large doors – if memory serves right, it’s the room where the war council will be held in the future – and a pair of soldiers guarding said door.

“Just wait here a moment, please. I’ll just see if she’s still within the building,” Cullen askes politely, and we oblige with no hesitation. Margaret, Connor, and I stand a few feet away from the doors, where Cullen’s gone to talk to one of the soldiers in hushed voices. I’ve got an inkling of who he’s talking about, and my blood runs cold if my theory proves to be true, but for now all we can do is wait. I feel awkward, just standing to the side and watching Cullen and the soldier exchange glances and then look to my group every now and then, but hey, that’s the best we can do now, so I can’t really complain.  After a few tense moments, the soldier salutes and Cullen gives a nod of his head and he returns to us as the soldier turns and makes his way through a door just to his left.

“My friend is still here, so that’s good. That kind soldier just went to go and find her, so she should just be a few moments. I must sadly leave you to your mission, but I wish you all the luck with reuniting with your friend,” Cullen says as he gives another polite nod, and I return one as well. He waves farewell and soon we watch his back as he leaves the Chantry’s doors. The soft thud of the doors is the only thing that disrupts the silence around us.

“So… do you know who he was talking about us meeting?” Connor asks after a few moments. I shake my head and heave a small sigh.

“I think so? I’m not entirely sure, but if it’s who I think it is, we _may_ have gotten ourselves in trouble and tangled up in a whole new mess of a spider’s web,” I shakily reply. Still no movement or noise from the door the soldier disappeared into. I don’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse. I look back towards the large doors to see the other soldier still standing there, seemingly paying no mind to us and our conversations, but we keep things quiet because you can never be certain.

“I like this building. It seems like the only peaceful thing for these people during these troubled times,” Margaret says out of the blue. I don’t really know what to say, and I don’t think that Connor does either. I look over to see her sitting in the ground, leaning on one of the many pillars spewing up from the floor, glancing up at the ceiling with a wistful look upon her face. I smile a sad smile, knowing her words to have some truth to them. It’s a sad reality – the Chantry’s supposed to be a beacon of light for the citizens of Thedas, but lately its only been a throne of power to those wishing to oppose their enemies, and soon it’ll become almost irrelevant if this world’s events turn out like those in-game.

Suddenly I look towards the smaller door to the left as I can hear boots thudding on what seems to be stairs – _they must be coming from somewhere below the main Chantry floor_ – and soon the door is opened, and the soldier walks out. Behind him, a woman clad in violet robes stops and looks around until she spots us in the far-right corner, and I try to hide my face from visibly stiffening. She sees and walks towards us, and in the corner of my eye I see Margaret slowly stand up and Connor try to straighten his back. I clear my throat softly, as she’s soon in front of us, her pale blue eyes scrutinizing us before we even speak.

“Hello. You must be the group of people Commander Cullen was speaking about?” she asks softly, and I nod my head. “You may call me Leliana. The soldier I spoke to told me you were looking for a friend of yours, and you though that she may be among the refugees in Haven?”

“Well, uh, yeah, I guess so, but not necessarily among the refugees. She may just be hiding out inside the village, I don’t exactly know her reasons or motivations why. She just… disappeared and we were worried, and this was the first settlement we came across, and well, it wouldn’t hurt to try and see if she was here,” I reply, trying to carefully choose my words so Leliana wouldn’t have any reason to doubt our goals.

“I see.” She replied shortly. “What does your friend look like, again? The soldier was very vague in his briefing.”

“Uh, well, she's a few years younger than me with short brown hair that reaches about her shoulders, dark brown eyes – much darker than mine – and she’s maybe a few inches taller than me? I’m not sure on that,” I say honestly, describing Emily as best I could. Its weird, you never realize how little you know a person looks like until you have to describe them. “Oh! And she has a weird ‘Y’ shaped scar running across her nose and left cheek from when she was scratched when she was younger… I hope that’s relevant…”

With the information of Emily’s odd scar, Leliana’s eyes visibly darken as she squints her eyes in my direction. I have to stop myself from stumbling backwards at the ferocity of her gaze.

“I see. I believe I know who you’re looking for. Come, follow me,” she says, and without waiting for any of our replies, she makes off towards the same door she originally came from. We scramble about, and soon we’re following her lithe form down a narrow and steep set of stone stairs, with only a few torches lighting the way.

As we reach the bottom of the stairs, the temperature seems to drop as we must be quite a way below the ground. A long hall stretches in front of us, and with Leliana’s brisk pace, we soon come to a wooden door with many metal bars inlaid in the structure. She turns around abruptly and lands her gaze on me.

“Only one may enter, although the rest may remain out here for the time we are in the room. You, you seem to know what you’re talking about. It should be you.” Leliana whispers, although with the tone of her voice it seemed more like a stage whisper – still a quiet voice but loud enough that you didn’t have to strain your ears. I nod quickly, shooting an apologetic look towards Margaret and Connor as I follow Leiliana closer to the door. I just hope that whatever trouble Emily’s gotten herself in that it can’t be any worse than mine.

With a few rapt knocks on the door, it opens after a moment and Leliana and I step into a rectangular room with again, only a few torches to light the area. I spy a few soldiers lining the walls, and it occurs to me that it was another soldier that opened the door for us.

Having to strain my eyes in the dim lighting, I spot an unmoving form in the middle of what seems to be a pit inlaid in the ground. My blood chills as I realize that it’s the unconscious form of my little sister, and it takes every will in my body to keep from rushing over there to make sure that her heart is still beating strong.

_And do you know the worst thing? The familiar green glow emanating from her left palm is exactly the thing that turns my whole world upside down._


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting there! More set up, and we finally get outside and go through the beginning of the prologue stuffs. This chapter is dialogue heavy - just a heads up - but we're getting there!
> 
> I'll see if I can write one or two more chapters today, although I don't know if I'll be able to post them if I do. But hey, at least they'll be pre-written so you shouldn't have to wait so long in between updates~
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy :)

_No no no no no no NO!_

My heart tightens, and I can feel Leliana stiffen beside as she waits to see what I’ll do. I clench my hands, and I’m thankful for the thick leather gloves – without them, I’m sure there’d be marks from where my nails would be digging into my palms.

“What happened to her? Why is she being treated as a prisoner?” I ask coldly, turning my gaze to the woman beside me. Leliana seems to exhale a breath – for what, I’m not entirely sure.

“Your friend there, she was found in the ruin of the Temple of Sacred Ashes. She was the only one still alive, and many soldiers agree to seeing her stepping out of a rift – it is believed that she is implicated somehow in this whole situation, and until she is deemed to not a threat to Thedas she will remain here for the time being.” Leliana explains, and I nod my head even though I knew most of what she was saying. It still didn’t stop my damn heart from hurting so bad.

“But she’s still basically a child, barely an adult! She could never willing hurt someone or cause such a mess like this! She could _never_ be so wicked!” I retort back, glaring down Leliana and nay soldier that dare come closer to intervene. “She’s harmless, can barely use a kitchen knife! How could you even _think_ she could kill hundreds with one fell swoop?!”

Leliana seems conflicted, and I understand her for that. But she _must_ understand, somewhere deep down, that my sister could _never_ be the cause of this disastrous massacre!

“I apologize, but again – she was the _sole_ survivor of a giant blast that ripped a hole in the sky and _killed_ our Most Holy. You see the implications of this yourself, yet you refuse to see past your narrow-minded thinking’s of affection for your companion.” Leliana replies shortly. I just about lose it. _How_ dare _she accuse Emily of being a murder_ and _thinking me to be an ignorant person! She has_ no _idea what I know!_

“I. Don’t. Care.” I say hotly, once again clenching my fists. “That is MY little sister down there, and if you think for a minute that I give a damn about anyone else, then you, my friend, are sorely mistaken.” Without giving Leliana a chance to reply, I bolt around her to try and reach Emily before she can stop me.

I was too slow. I come to a stop just before the shallow dip where she’s laying by a sword being drawn out of its sheath and being maliciously held in front of me.

“You must be mishearing my friend there. We are keeping you away from the prisoner for your own safety.” The mysterious soldier – a woman with short black hair and stone-cold eyes – says as she continues to keep the sword in front of my face. “If you cannot accept that, then we will be forced to deal with you as a threat to Thedas as well.”

“You say she is your friend, but now she is your sister?” Leliana asks expectantly, looking to me for an answer. I jerk my head in the direction of the woman in front of me, and Leliana waves her hand slightly. The sword is sheathed, although with a bit of hesitation.

“She’s my little sister. Friend of my friends. Simple like that.” I explain softly, looking around the soldier to still see Emily’s slumped form. “Please. Let me go to her. She’s all alone down there, and what if she wakes up scared? Who will comfort her?”

I try to stop the tears from falling, but my efforts were futile. I quickly bring a hand up to wipe away the tears, sniffing slightly to try and alleviate their presence.

“It’s for the greater good. I thought it a kindness to show you of her presence, but now I fear it only to be a curse.” Leliana tries to comfort, placing a hand softly on my arm. “Cassandra, will you please lead her and her friends back to the Chantry?”

Cassandra – _that’s who the soldier was! I should have realized! –_ goes to grab my arm, but I jerk away from her touch.

“NO! No, you can’t make me leave her side! PLEASE! _EMILY!_ ” I cry out as Cassandra was now forcefully dragging me by the waist towards the door. My tears flowing freely now, I kept clawing at her arms and planting my heels into the ground to try and stop her from reaching the door. I hear the door slam open, and Cassandra stops in her tracks. I whip my head around to see that Margaret and Connor running through the open door – they must have kicked or busted it open somehow!

“What going on here?!” Connor demands, narrowing his eyes at Leliana and Cassandra in turn, until his gaze lands on me in Cassandra’s iron grip. “Jesus, Kandice, what have you gotten yourself into now?!”

Before I have time to answer Connor’s question, I hear a soft gasp from Margaret’s lips.

“Emily,” Margaret says in a pained whisper, pointing towards her unconscious form. Connor realizes where she’s pointing to, and a pained expression dawns on his face.

“What have you done to our friend? Huh? What’s going _on_!?!” Connor demands, crossing his arms and giving his worst death glare towards the women in questions. Cassandra lets go of me with a scoff – I almost fall to the ground from the sudden action – and marches towards my two friends.

“Didn’t Leliana tell you to wait? What audacity do _you_ have to go ignoring the orders you were given? Are we going to have to treat you all like prisoners now –” Cassandra begins with her words stinging like venom, but they fall short as a pained cough emanates from farther in the room. I snap my head back to the small dip, seeing as Emily’s form was lurching forwards from the sudden action.

I rush to her side before anyone can stop me, and I help her find a comfortable way to sit on her knees. I rub her back as the coughing fit soon subsides.

“Emily?” I ask quietly, my voice still a bit wet from the tears. I look over her form, now having the chance to see her up close, and the one thing that puts me off guard is that she’s already in clothes relative to this era. _Best not to dwell on it now. We’ll have time for questions later._

“K-Kandice?” she replies shakily as another cough escapes her lips, lifting her head to look me in the eyes. “W-where are we? This doesn’t feel like home…”. She tries to lift her hands, but because of the bindings she could barely lift them away from her body. With a shocked face, she looks to me for answers but before I can say anything, I’m pulled upwards and backwards away from my sister.

“HEY! We were having a moment there!” I yell to the perpetrator – it was Cassandra who did so – and I right myself so I can stand up straight. Cassandra shoots me an iron glare, and I stumble a bit backwards from the look.

“You. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill your right now. The Temple is destroyed. Everyone who attended the Conclave is dead. Everyone but _you,”_ Cassandra asks Emily darkly, and I can feel the fire in her gaze from just hearing her words. I scramble back towards the door where Margaret and Connor stood, making sure they wouldn’t do anything stupid. _My heart aches. This is important to the outcome of this world. This MUST go smoothly. I’m sorry Emily._

Emily looks to Cassandra, and she tries to look for me but, in the darkness, she must only be able to make out vague forms.

“Wh-what do you mean that everyone’s dead? What’s going on?” Emily replies pitifully. Cassandra, with a scoff, reaches out to grab her arms and pull her to her legs.

“Explain _this!”_ Cassandra roars as the mark on Emily’s hand flares to life – much brighter than what happened to my hand yesterday. _Why would there be a difference, though?_ I feel Connor and Margaret stiffen beside me, but I give them each a look and they stand down – for now.

“I… I can’t.” Emily says in a small voice, trying to put some distance between Cassandra and herself.

“What do you mean you can’t?” Cassandra snarls, and I feel the rage building up inside of me.

“I don’t know what that is or how it got there! You _have_ to believe me!” Emily cries out, looking around wildly for any help.

“You’re lying!” Cassandra yells out. Connor once again stiffens beside me.

“HEY! If she says she doesn’t know, she doesn’t know! Give her a break!” Connor interjects from beside me, rage obvious in his voice. I have to put my arm out to keep him from intervening. Cassandra turns and snarls at Connor, and Leliana ‘tsks’ from her corner. _Jeez, I almost forgot she was here._

“We need her, Cassandra.” Leliana says pointedly. Cassandra gives her a glare, then turns back towards Emily.

“I really don’t understand… really, what’s going on?” Emily asks with a frown obvious in her voice.

“Do you remember anything? How this all began?” Leliana questions softly. From my view in the dark, Emily’s face scrunches up as she thinks for a moment.

“I remember… running. Things… were chasing me. And… a woman?” Emily answers, although she seems unsure with her replies.

“A woman?” Leliana raises an eyebrow. Emily shakes her head, confident now in her words.

“Yes, a woman. She was reaching out for me, but then…” she trailed off, most likely everything else from then on a blur of memories. Cassandra sighs lightly, looking back to Leliana.

“Go to the forward camp. I will bring her to the rift.” Leliana nods at Cassandra’s words, and with silent movements she passes us with what seemed a small smile of comfort as she closed the door behind her. Then as Leliana leaves, she looks towards us, expectantly.

“You should go as well. You are not needed. Go, rest, and someone will find you later,” Cassandra says with a soft voice, and I walk up to her with a hard look on my face.

“No.” I reply fiercely, as Cassandra looks shocked at someone defying her orders. “I’ll go wherever Emily goes, now that we’ve finally found her. I don’t care if you have to kill me but try getting her to cooperate after she’s seen you cut down her older sister.”

Cassandra shakes her head with another scoff but makes no move to try and force us away. Emily looks to me with a small smile of gratitude, and then to Cassandra – still with confusion lacing her features.

“So… what _did_ happen?”

“It will be easier to show you.” Cassandra replies gently, grabbing hold of Emily’s arms once again and replacing the iron manacles with some thick rope. I return to Margaret and Connor’s side.

“We will go with them up the mountain. It will be hard, but then with us all together, we know nothing _too_ bad will happen.” I tell them quietly. Margaret’s look of adventure returns as she gives me a bright smile, but Connor doesn’t look too convinced. I shoot him a look, and he looks away in guilt, mumbling a small ‘fine’.

Soon Cassandra has Emily all ready, and we all leave – with Cassandra leading Emily up the stairs and the three of us trailing behind the warrior. Through the hallway, up the stairs, and down the Chantry’s hall, we make it outside once again. I look up to the sky, as does Emily, and I notice the Breach to have gotten slightly bigger since we’ve been inside.

“We call it the Breach.” Cassandra explains to Emily – and well, to us too, I guess. “It’s a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It’s not the only such rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the conclave.”

“An _explosion_ caused that? Can it really do that?” Emily asks incredulously, marveled by the ever-growing green hole in the sky. Cassandra motions for us to continue, pushing Emily off the steps of the Chantry slightly, and we make our way through Haven and down towards the gates.

“This one did. Unless we act soon, it may grow until it swallows the world.” Cassandra replies darkly, and I shudder at the thought. A green pulse emanates from above us, and Emily falls over in a shout of pain, clutching her bound arms to her chest. I rush over to her, as well as Cassandra, to make sure she’s okay. A look of pain crosses both of our features.

“Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads… and it is killing you. It may be the key to stopping this but there isn’t much time.” The warrior says with a small frown.

“You say it may be the key. To doing what?” Margaret asks Cassandra with a skeptical look, glancing down at Emily as she and Connor run over to our spot on the ground.

“For closing the Breach. Whether that’s possible is something we shall discover shortly. It is our only chance, however. And yours.” Cassandra replies, targeting her last words towards Emily as I help her off the ground.

“So, if I do what you want, will I live through it?” Emily questions in a small voice

“We have no way of knowing.” Cassandra replies honestly. “All we can do, is try.”

With Emily on her feet again and steady enough to continue, we make our way down the path, and I can now see many villagers peering and glaring at Emily with varying looks of disgust, horror, and fear.

“They have decided your guilt. They need it. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry. The Conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between mages and templars. She brought their leaders together. Now, they are dead.” Cassandra explains with a hint of sadness as we reach the gates and soldiers open them up for us. We pass through without any problems and they close shut after we all make it through. “We lash out, like the sky. But we must think beyond ourselves, as she did. Until the breach is sealed.”

Cassandra reveals a dagger, and for a moment I almost run in front of Emily to protect her, but as Cassandra cuts the bindings from Emily’s hands I feel my body relax, although only a smidge.

“There will be a trial. I can promise no more.” Cassandra says with a small frown, but Emily nods her head in a confident manner. She stretches out her hands and takes a moment to look at the green webs along her left palm. A small flash of guilt laces my features for a moment, until Cassandra starts again and has all five of us going at a steady jog. _There’s nothing I can do about anything now, so there’s no bother worrying about it._

 “Where are you taking us?” Connor asked with a skeptical look towards Cassandra as we rounded a corner, and the woman in questions gives off a small sigh.

“Her mark must be tested on something smaller than the Breach.” Cassandras says with a look of ‘duh, you should’ve figured that one out dumbo’. “Come. It is not far.”

We keep at our steady pace, and I can’t help but worry. _Will the mark be strong enough for her to use if we both have it?_ I shake my head. _All we can do is try._


	6. Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another one today! Some more familiar faces, battling ensues, and our first major choice is made! I was going to make this one long chapter to finish up the prologue sequence, but I'm all written out today lol~ I think maybe one more chapter until we close the Breach, but who knows, eh?
> 
> As usual, I hope you enjoy!

Outside the gates of Haven, Cassandra veers us off towards the left to the beaten down paths that must lead upwards into the valley. Soldiers continued to run about, some on their way up and some on their way down – although those returning to Haven were few and far apart, and many were wounded or carrying their wounded brothers and sisters in arms.

We come across a long bridge with another large gate at the far end. Many soldiers and what appear to be Chantry sisters all walk about, and out of the corner of my eye I see a few packages wrapped with cloth and rope – and to my horror, I realize that they must be fallen soldiers, or at least people caught in the cross-fire or the explosion in general.

“Open the gate! We are headed into the valley!” Cassandra calls out as we reach the end of the bridge, and soon the doors were opened, and we could pass through them easily. Another slight turn to the left, and up we go towards the ruined temple. We pass by many soldiers, manning what appear to be spiky barricades? _I think there’s a proper word for them? I have no idea…_

Even as we reach the top of the hill, we spot a wagon on fire, and Cassandra makes a wide circle around it so none of us even come close to catching anything on it. Bodies litter the ground around us, much more evident in the daylight than yesterday. I spy Emily looking around in shocked horror as we continue to march on, and I pat her lightly on the back as I come up beside her.

“It’s going to be fine. We’re in good hands now.” I say with a soft voice, trying to give her some comfort. She shakes her head at me, and I give a small frown.

“How could anything like this be fine, Kandice? People are _dead,_ and I might be the reason,” Emily says with a downward look. Its my turn to shake my head at her.

“Stop that. You could never do this, on purpose or by accident. We’ll find whoever’s responsible, yeah?” I say with a small smile, hoping to try and cheer her up.

As we continue on, just a few steps after we reach the top of the hill Emily’s mark flair’s up again, and with another shout of pain she tumbles into the snow. I have to bite my lip from crying out as well, as a jet of pain coursed all the way up my arm and it felt like it went right up into my skull.

“Emily!” Margaret shouts as she runs over to her side before I get the chance, helping her get back to her feet. Cassandra strolls over, looking Emily up and down.

“The pulses are coming faster now. The larger the Breach grows, the more rifts appear, the more demons we face.” The warrior says with a hard look on her face. “We must carry on.”

“How _did_ I even survive that blast?” Emily asks with a scowl on her face. “This just seems like some stupid cruel joke, making me suffer like this.”

“They said you… stepped out of a rift, then fell unconscious. It has been almost two days since then. They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was. Everything farther in the valley was laid waste, including the Temple of Sacred Ashes.” Cassandra says with a grim face as we start up another path. “I suppose you’ll see soon enough.”

Another bridge comes into view, and as we cross it I notice a green blob (meteor?) come our way from the Breach and with an involuntary shout I brace myself for the impact.

It crashed right into the bridge, and we all screamed or shouted – even Cassandra – as we tumbled down the cliff side and through the rubble onto a frozen river. With a groan, I shook any loose dust from my clothes and patted off whatever else I could. I didn’t feel anything broken, maybe just a few bruises or scratches here and there.

“Is everyone alright?” I yell to no one in particular, standing up slowly and testing my footing on the frozen surface. I look around and hear a few groans of protest, but everyone seemed to be mildly alright. From the corner of my eye I see Cassandra walk out on to the ice and see her visible stiffen and draw her sword. Another green blob hits the river just a few feet from where we stood, and a shade forms from the green mist.

“Stay behind me!” Cassandra shouts, running to face the demon with her sword and shield in arms. I run back to the ruined bridge to help everyone onto their feet. Margaret was already up and about, so I helped Connor and then Emily, and we all watched with marveled horror as the warrior sliced and diced at the demon she currently faced. To my right I heard a not-so-natural hiss of air and I whipped my head around to see another shade forming and heading our way.

“Uh, uh, look for something to defend yourself with! Quick!” I ordered, surveying the rubble but not ever taking my eyes off the approaching beast. I spot a few crates, nod my head in their direction, and the other three quickly dash to hopefully find some weapons or something. _Even just a large stick could be used to defend yourself!_

I think quickly, channeling some Fade energy (that’s gotta be what this freaky magic shit is, right?) and shoot a small fireball to deter it from coming any closer. My accuracy was shit compared to yesterday, missing any vital areas on the shade’s body and only grazing over its arm.

I look back to my companions to see them running over to join me into the fray. Connor’s equipped himself with a short bow and a half-filled quiver, Margaret has two small sheaths on each of her hips which I can only assume belong to some kind of daggers, and Emily has a short sword in one hand a shield in the other. Connor begins to shoot his arrows like a madman, some of them hitting their mark and others not even being close, and Emily rushes ahead with some sort of war noise – like a loud yell. Margaret pauses beside me, and hands me something I didn’t notice before – a large… stick?

“I think this would be of use to you,” Margaret says with a grin, rushing ahead to join Emily. I squint at the stick, and then it clues in to me: it must be a staff! With a small smirk, I channel my power and think real hard, and then release the energy into the staff in my hands and then – boom! A much larger fireball than I’d created before left the top of the staff and landed square in the demon’s face, making it yell out in rage before disappearing in to a cloud of green smoke. A large smile comes to my face. _We did that! We_ actually _did that! Maybe there is some hope for us._

I look over to Margaret and Emily and seeing them whooping and cheering to each other, as I feel Connor come up behind me and clap me on the back in congratulations. I look to him and smile a genuine smile, and he returns one back to me.

We run to join Emily and Margaret in the middle of the river, and I laugh at their disheveled forms. I guess I must be just as bad, but who cares right now, eh?

“It’s over, thank the lord,” Emily laughs gratefully. “I’m glad its dead.”

“Drop your weapons, now!” Cassandra shouts, and with a jump I turn towards the sound of her voice. I nearly forgot she was with us! Brandishing her sword towards us, but mostly to Emily, she glared us all down until we made a move.

“You need to trust us. If you’re going to lead us through a demon-infested valley, you can’t expect to protect us all.” I say with a pointed look. Cassandra sighs and looks away, defeated.

“You are right; I cannot protect you all, and I cannot expect you to be defenseless. Your life is threatened enough as it is.” She adds the last little but to Emily, but she cannot see the irony to her words of there being two people to bear the mark in her presence. Cassandra spares a glance in all our directions, looking to see the weapons we chose, but as her eyes glance over me and my magic stick, her eyes visibly darken, and she turns away without any words.

_Yeah, I’m going to pay for be a mage later, aren’t I?_

With everyone all right and ready to go, we begin again and make our way along the frozen river. We saw more bodies here and there, and I really feel bad for the poor souls fighting a war they did not even deserve. With my thoughts racing, I barely registered Emily’s presence to my right as she clapped on the shoulder lightly.

“Did you see me, Kandice?” Emily said with a confident smile. “I was swinging that sword and the demon thing was all like ‘augh, argh! my arms, ah my arms!” She makes mock swings and battle effect noise, re-enacting our small battle. I chuckle lightly at her antics.

“You did pretty good. Although you’ll need some proper training to be half as good as Cassandra, there.” I smirk, and her smile falters slightly, but then she looks towards Cassandra – who gives a scoff in the younger girl’s direction – and looks at me with bright eyes.

“Really? You think so?” Emily asks, with a look of wonder on her face. “Maybe… just maybe.”

I pat her on the arm and show another smile in her direction. We come to what appears to be a small frozen waterfall, and Cassandra points in the distance at two or three figures on the ice down below.

“More demons! Watch out!” Cassandra yells and she rushes down the riverbed, with Emily and Margaret on her heels. I unlatch the staff from my back, and Connor does the same with his bow, and we begin shooting at the shades with magic blasts and arrows respectively. Within minutes the demons all disappeared in clouds of green smoke, and we were once again making our way up the mountain. This time we pass a burning house as we find ourselves faced with a set on stone stairs inlaid into the mountain’s surface. I visibly groan, looking at them with disgust.

“I fucking hate stairs,” I grumble with a hard glare in their direction, and I feel Margaret snicker beside me. We start up the stairs, my lagging behind from my hatred for these steps in particular, and after a few minutes we reach the top, my breath coming in small pants from the exertion.

“We’re getting close to the rift. You can hear the fighting.” Cassandra says as we all strain our ears to listen. True to her words, faint shouting and the clanging of weapons could be heard, along with shouts and the occasional hiss of a demon. Cassandra quickly breaks into a run, and we’re all forced to pick up our pace to keep her within our sights.

“Who’s fighting?” Emily asks as we catch up with the warrior. Cassandra spares a glance behind her to look at us.

“You’ll see soon. We must help them.”

At the top of the stairs, we come to a small hill and once we got over it, you could see the glow of the first rift: sickly green and spewing demons here and there. Several soldiers battled them fiercely, and a few were on the ground either injured or dead, and I could see the forms of two very familiar people. I groaned internally, as everything just keeps getting more and more damn _complicated_.

Cassandra wasted no time in rushing into the battle, and with a nod from my head Emily and Margaret follow behind her. Connor and I approach the rift slowly, looking for good vantage points to start volleying the shit out of these demons. Although the four of us were practically untrained, with the arrival of us plus Cassandra, we were able to help everyone just enough that the demons were vanquished without many troubles.

“Quickly, before more come through!” A familiar voice rocks me to my core, as I spy Solas grabbing Emily’s right hand and lifting her palm towards the rift. I clench my fists again, but not in anger this time: something more.

Connor and I make our way closer to the other as Emily looks at her hand and then to Solas in turn.

“What did you do?” Emily asks with a marvelous gaze to both herself and the bald elf man in front of her.

“I did nothing. The credit is yours.” Solas says with an evident smirk in his gaze and I just wanted to smack that look right off his face. _Liar! Its all your fault!_

“At least this is good for something.” Emily grimaces at her hand, clenching and unclenching it a few times. _Does it hurt her? I should make sure she’s alright…_

“Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach’s wake – and it seems I was correct.” Solas remarked as he looked around to everyone – to see that Cassandra not only brought the prisoner, but also my ragtag group of crazies.

“Meaning maybe it _can_ be used to close that Breach, just like Cassandra said,” Margaret wondered out loud, giving Emily a small smile of encouragement.

“Possibly.” He nods his head towards Margaret. “It seems you hold the key to our salvation.”

“Good to know! Here I thought we’d be ass-deep in demons forever.” The short man – dwarf, I must remember – interjected with a smirk as he approached the ever-growing group. “Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tag-along.”

“Absolutely not. Your help is appreciated, Varric, but…” Cassandra looked to him with a disgruntled look.

 “Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker? Your soldiers aren’t in control anymore. You need me.” Varric replied with a grin as Cassandra made a disgusted noise as she left to care for the few soldiers still standing about.

“My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions. I’m pleased to see you still live.” Solas introduced himself to Emily and she gave him a weird look. I had to stop myself from laughing at his weird choice of words.

“He means, ‘I kept that mark from killing you while you slept.'” Varric adds with a small laugh of his own, looking to Emily’s still weirded out look.

“Well, thanks a lot for keeping our friend alive then. I guess we own you a huge thanks,” Connor offered a smile to Solas, and the elf in question gave a small smile of his own in return.

“It was no trouble, merely what was expected of me.” He turns to Cassandra. “Cassandra, you should know: the magic involved here is unlike any I have ever seen. Your prisoner is no mage. Indeed, I find it difficult to imagine any mage having such power.” _Liar, liar, pants on fire!_

“Understood.” Cassandra acknowledges with a nod of her head. “We must get to the forward camp quickly.”

We all gathered ourselves, and since the road ahead was blocked we had to jump over a small bank and out onto the frozen river again.

As we continued down, we kept a sharp lookout for any demons along the way, but so far so good. In front of me I saw Solas talking to Cassandra in the front of our group.

“So, I recognized the prisoner as she came over the bank, but I sadly must say I do not recognize any of your other companions. Do introduce us.” Solas asked with a small frown on his face. _Of course, he’s worried about something he doesn’t know._ Cassandra looked to him, didn’t say anything, and then from behind me I hear Varric let out a loud chuckle.

“You don’t know, do you? That seems just like you Seeker,” Varric laughed again, shaking his head and I can’t but shake mine too. _I can’t believe we forgot to introduce ourselves either!_

“I don’t know what you are talking about! I know them, they are friends of the prisoner who came to Haven looking for her… their names must have just escaped my mind, is all.” Cassandra replied with an indignant shake of her head.

“I guess I’ll start… Hi, I’m Margaret, just a girl who likes to read… and I guess I’ve got mini swords now,” Margaret said with a small squeak – oh that awkward child! – and I shake my head.

“Daggers, Margaret. Daggers. I’m Connor, and I just follow these crazies along because they feed me every now and then.” Connor said with a small laugh, and I’m almost tempted to hit him over the head.

“I’m Kandice, and you already know Emily – your prisoner. She’s my little sister.” I introduced myself with a bit of pride in my voice. (What? She’s a good kid!)

After we finished our small introductions, Solas seemed to be satisfied for now, and Cassandra looked like she’s trying to match our names to our faces for future reference.

“So… where are you all from? It's hard to tell with your accents,” Varric asked from beside me with a small frown. _Shit! I haven’t figured out a story yet, what do I do?_

“What’s it to you? Is this another kind of interrogation?” Emily, surprising, retorted from in front of us, shooting a small glare in Varric’s direction.

“Oh, I’m sure Cassandra has done plenty of that.” Varric barks with a small laugh, and I can feel Cassandra emanating rage from the front. We keep trudging on, through banks of snow and half-there paths – _seriously, how farther is this damned forward camp? –_ until Emily almost falls over from her mark flaring up again. I squint my eyes, clenching my fists to distract from the pain in my own arm.

“Shit, kid, are you alright?” Varric asked with worry in his voice as Emily straightens herself out. She let a sharp breath, but nodded in reply to Varric’s question. We came across another set of stairs, and I groan again. Varric gave a small chuckle from beside me, and I gave him a hard glare, and we start our way up.

Once we get to the top, a few more demons appear, and we get rid of them swiftly. Connor and Varric laying waste with deadly arrows and bolts, Margaret, Emily and Cassandra rushing ahead to fight with their blades, and Solas and I hitting them with blasts of magic. It was a quick fight, and afterwards Solas gave me quick look.

“A fellow apostate, I assume?” The elf asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I guess so,” I answered vaguely, leaving him to join the others as we still march on. Soon we see a new gate – it must be the entrance to the forward camp! – with a green rift sitting just in front of it.

“Another rift!” Cassandra shouts, waving for us all to hurry and fight the demons surrounding the gaping hole.

“We must seal it, quickly!” Solas adds, preparing himself to start casting.

“They keep coming! Help us!” A soldier from the sidelines shouted, and we quickly make work of the demons pouring out of the fade. Emily, without any help this time, reaches her hand up and closes the rift.

“The rift is gone! Open the gate!” Cassandra shouted to the other side.

“Right away, Lady Cassandra!” Someone yelled from inside the camp, and soon the doors swing open from the heavy hinges.

“We are clear for the moment. Well done.” Solas looks to Emily with pride, and I feel myself glaring into the back of his head.

“Whatever that thing on your hand is, it’s useful.” Varric gives her a pat on the back with a smile, and soon we all march ourselves into the forward camp. I smile, glad for her endeavors, but I can’t help but worry that everything was about to get ten-times worse. With a deep breath, I follow the others through the large doors. We pass soldiers and supply crates and weapon racks as we make our way carefully towards the other end of the camp. As we get closer, we can hear Leliana and Chancellor Roderick seemingly arguing over something.

“Enough! I will not have it!” Roderick spouted as we come with hearing distance. Cassandra looked towards Leliana expectantly, and the woman in violet let out a held breath.

“You made it. Chancellor Roderick, this is–” Leliana begins, but is cut off by the man beside her.

 

“I know who she is. As Grand Chancellor of the Chantry, I hereby order you to take this criminal to Val Royeaux to face execution.” Roderick demanded, pointing towards Emily who takes a step back from shock. Connor, from behind, steadies her and whispers what I assume are words of comfort in her ears.

“'Order me’?” Cassandra laughed at Roderick’s words. “You are a glorified clerk. A bureaucrat!”

“And you are a thug, but a thug who supposedly serves the Chantry!” The man sneered down at Cassandra, and I see her give him an iron glare.

“We serve the Most Holy, Chancellor, as you well know.” Leliana pointed out, and Roderick scoffs at her words.

“Justinia is _dead_! We must elect her replacement and obey her orders on the matter.”

“Isn’t closing the Breach the more pressing issue?” I piped up, looking towards the three in front of me. Roderick stared me down – most likely not recognizing me – and waves off my words like rain drops on a jacket.

“She brought this on us in the first place!” he pointed towards Emily again, and I turn to see a disgruntled look upon her face. “Call a retreat, Seeker. Our position here is hopeless.”

 “We can stop this before it’s too late. We must get to the temple. It’s the quickest route.” Cassandra explained, hope in her voice that the chancellor would see reason.

“But not the safest. Our forces can charge as a distraction while we go through the mountains.” Leliana added to the conversation, but Cassandra gave her a glare.

“We lost contact with an entire squad on that path. It’s too risky.” The warrior pointed out, leaving Leliana with a look of thought of her face.

“Listen to me. Abandon this now, before more lives are lost.” Roderick called out, but no one paid him any mind.

“How do you think we should proceed?” Cassandra asked aloud, looking through our group to find Emily. She looks at her, expecting an answer. Emily looks around for any clue, until her gaze lands on me. She looks at me with a struggling look on her face, and I mouth ‘mountain’ back at her.

“W-well, if time is of the essence, we should take the mountain path… if that’s okay.” Emily replied warily to Cassandra’s expectant gaze. The warrior nods, looking to Leliana beside her.

“Leliana. Bring everyone left in the valley. Everyone.” Cassandra ordered. Leliana nods and leaves, to presumably do as Cassandra asked her.

“On your head be the consequences, Seeker.” Roderick grumbled as we begin to head out the gate just behind the man, ready to head to the mountain path. No one pays him any mind again, and soon we’re on the other side of the gate looking up to the intimidating mountain.

_It’s now or never._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of everyone's weapon choices? Or how about Kandice's reactions towards Solas? Anything you see that'll be relevant to the book's future? I hope this is a good story that'll keep you guessing and on your heels :)


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I think this is the longest one yet? I didn't want to break it up into two smaller chapter just to keep you waiting, so here it is! The confrontation at the temple, and many revelations for the ones observing the show~
> 
> Forever and always, I do hope you enjoy :)

****

Despite the cold weather and the chilly wind blasting all around us, as we come to a small rest just before we start climbing up a few intimidating ladders my breath comes in ragged pants. _Jesus, I need to exercise more! If we’re gonna be in Thedas for a while, I’ll need to work on my stamina that’s for sure!_ I rest one of my hands on the mountain face beside me, the other on my knee, and I was slightly hunched over trying to catch my breath and regain some energy. A small chuckle from behind me forces my stiff body to look around and glare at the man giving me a funny look.

“Fuck off, Varric. Not everyone’s some champion mountain climber or some shit,” I rasped, and my words just make him laugh even more. I hear Cassandra sigh loudly in front of me, and from the corner of my eye I see Solas shake his head – although the corner of his mouth seems to be upturned in some sort of half smile. Regaining some of my composure, I look around to my companions. Connor seems to be in no better condition than I am, having sat down on the cold surface to rest for a few precious moments. Emily and Margaret were no better, but they were no worse either. Margaret kept looking in awe around the many views we passed along despite the looming threat above us, and Emily seemed to be jumping from foot to foot – as if she were anxious to keep moving up.

“Alright, we must keep moving. This is enough of a break that we can manage.” Cassandra called out, and I hear a few groans of protest. I sigh and shake my head, I and walk over to Connor’s spot and offer him a hand up. He looks at me, and his green eyes clearly seem worn out.

“I honestly don’t know how you convinced me to climb a damn mountain towards my potential death,” he laughed cynically, and graciously accepted my hand. He pulls himself up with another groan of protest, but soon he’s on his feet and we follow the rest of the group up the ladders. I watch as Connor makes his way up the first one behind Margaret, and I look at the wooden rungs warily.

In hindsight, I should have calculated in my fear of heights _before_ I suggested the mountain path to Emily. With a silent gulp, I place my hands on the first rung and slowly made my way up to the next platform, my breath shaking and my limbs feeling like lead.

I try not to look down as I pull myself up to the wooden floor and off of the first ladder of doom. Cassandra, Emily and Solas have already begun their assent on the second ladder, and I sigh with another shaky breath. I let everyone go ahead of me, but before Varric starts his climbs, he looks to me with an air of wondering. I raise an eyebrow at him, inviting him to ask his question.

“Fear of heights, I’m guessing?” he asks with concern lacing his voice. I nod slowly.

“Yeah, but its nothing that I can’t manage.” I reply with a quiet voice and nodding my head for him to go ahead. “Really, I’ll be fine.” As Varric begins climbing, I prepare myself for the next ladder. Before I reach the next platform, I can hear idle conversations coming from the final ladder.

“The tunnel should be just ahead. The path to the temple lies just beyond it.” Cassandra explained, and I look up to see her almost off her ladder.

“What kind of tunnel are we looking for? Is it like, and old mine?” Emily asked as she finishes her climbing, and I see her dusting off her clothes slightly. I take a final deep breath and take the first steps onto the third ladder.

“Part of an old mining complex. These mountains are full of such paths.” Cassandra replied.

“And your missing soldiers are in there somewhere?” Varric yelled up with a questioning tone. From my vantage point, I can see her lightly nod her head.

“Along with whatever has detained them.” Solas interjected pointedly, as Emily helps him to his feet as he finished his climb. Cassandra gives him a slight glare as I’m pulled to my feet and onto the solid ground by Margaret.

“We shall see soon enough.” Cassandra answered with a heavy sigh, and motioned for us to continue on. Veering to the left, we trod along a beaten down path that’s obviously not been used for a quite a while save for the missing patrol, and soon I see the outline of the cave coming into view. As we reached the inner entrance, a few inhuman hisses and moans reached my senses.

“Demons,” I seethed, grasping my staff tighter. With my words, everyone else began to look around frantically, some like Cassandra and Connor immediately reaching for their weapons. Varric was the first to strike with Bianca, hitting a shade right in its shoulder, making it hiss in pain. Soon magic and arrows and the flash of steel and iron buzzed about and the couple demons that dared to stand in out path were no more, simply disappearing into clouds of green smoke like usual.

“We’re getting pretty good at this, eh? Soon we’ll be demon-hunting experts!” Margaret exclaimed softly from beside as we continued through the cave, no one yet to have spotted any more demons or creatures worth worrying about.

“Yeah, I guess we are,” I replied with a small smile of pride towards my taller friends. She grinned, and she rushed up to loop arms with Emily – who walked just behind Cassandra – with a jump in her step. I shook my head at her antics, but still proud of her – and Connor and Emily, of course – for taking everything so well for now. I couldn’t believe what I’d do if I had no one to stand beside me. Without realizing it, I was walking at the back of the group with Varric walking in step with me. I shoot a friendly smile down to the dwarf, one which he gladly returned.

“So, what’s your story, eh? Your sister, now, that’ll be hard to pinpoint with the whole ‘I’ve got some freaky magic mark on my hand’ and stuff, but you – you look like you’ve seen some shit,” Varric asked out of the blue. I look ahead, pondering his words.

“I don’t really know. I guess I’m just like this? – but if your looking for a glimpse into my life, you’re better to ask Emily for half-answers than to get any out of me. Like you said, I’ve seen some shit – and trust me, I don’t want you to have to bear it, too.” I told him honestly, and he hummed in approval, with no other words from him.

Deeper into the mine we go, and even with the dim lighting, we could keep to the path and see where we were headed. Through hallways, up stairs, and passing by balconies that gave a glimpse into the abyss that the mine seemed to be, and soon I could feel fresh wind coming our way.

“We’re almost there,” I say, mostly to myself. Cassandra, with Emily and Solas not far behind her, was doing an excellent job at leading our party. _I can’t believe the pc would lead the group in the game like Cassandra is doing now! If it was me up there, I’m sure we’d have been turned around at least half a dozen times already._

With the ever-approaching light, we found ourselves outside of the mine in what felt like no time. We’re getting closer to the Temple; I can feel it.

“Guess we found the soldiers.” Varric sighed from my right, looking down the small flight of stairs and over a small snow bank to see the bodies of three fallen soldiers.

“That cannot be all of them.” Cassandra replied with an indignant snort, looking around for any sign of more people.

“So, the others could be holed up ahead or hiding somewhere away from the danger?” Margaret piped up with a hopeful voice.

“Our priority must be the Breach. Unless we seal it soon, no one is safe.” Solas remarked, giving Margaret a small glare that made her hope shatter, if only a bit. _God, I already want to punch the elf bastard and we’ve barely talked more than a few sentences!_

“Well, _I’m_ leaving that to the kid with the glowing hand. If _we_ save some lives along the way, who’s to judge?” Varric said with a shrug of his shoulders, and I felt a connection with his words. _Its not you, though. You’re just a tag-along, some stray dog that Cassandra felt the need to pity and not put down when she laid eyes on you._

I sighed lightly as Cassandra motioned us forwards, and now we were on the final stretch. Along another broken old path, well trodden but not for years, suddenly we hear fighting and the clashing of weapons. Cassandra looks around in a haze, narrows her eyes, and she dashes forward. _I guess its fight time again!_

I sprint to join the others, and we near another rift where about three or four soldiers are fighting off some wraiths and some shades. I see Margaret slash and dive away from one shade, and Connor standing beside Varric, shooting arrows in another. I clench my staff and begin to shoot basic ice spikes towards a wraith, as Solas – only a few feet from me – was casting barriers around our warriors like Emily and Cassandra so they could attack without much worries.

With the first wave taken care of, I relish in the moment of stillness to catch my breath and refocus my thoughts. As the rift expands and opens up, two terrors pop out of green pools, and my heart stops for a moment. _Oh, these bitches._

Immediately I started firing blasts of ice and fire, to try and distract the demons so the leading fighters could have a chance to strike. Connor and Varric seemed to notice my tactics, and soon followed by shooting their faces and upper bodies with many deadly shots. We were doing really well against the demons, until one disappeared into the ground with the same eerie pool of green as it originated from.

“Look to the ground! Don’t let it come from behind you!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, not caring if I shouldn’t know the specific way that a terror would fight. If it meant that one of my friends wouldn’t die, I would sacrifice myself in a heartbeat.

_Don’t think like that. Not now. There’s still work to be done._

Making some sense of my words, Cassandra and Emily heed my advice and watch the ground between the slashes they took at the other terror. Margaret seemed to be looking around frantically, until a green pool formed under her feet. Before I had a chance to yell out to her, she must have had some common sense and jumped a safe distance away so was out of it’s striking range. With a cry of rage, I began to shoot more basic attacks towards the stupid little bitch (read: terror) and finally they both were vanquished and disappeared with stupid noises of pain and agony. _That’s what you get for threatening my friends!_

As no more demons made their way through the rift, as a sixth sense Emily raised her left hand and soon the rift was no more than a puff of green smoke and a horrible memory.

“Sealed, as before. You are becoming quite proficient at this.” Solas remarks as he makes his way towards Emily as I slowly trailed behind him. A look of pride crossed her features, and a scowl crossed mine. _That dumb how be making my sister all proud about something that’s entirely_ his _fault!_

“Let’s hope it works on the big one.” Connor says with a smirk, giving Emily a small pat on the shoulder. One of the soldiers ran up to our group, with a grateful look upon their face.

“Thank the Maker you finally arrived, Lady Cassandra. I don’t think we could have held out much longer.” The soldier expressed in gratitude, and I saw Cassandra give the soldier a small smile.

“Thank our prisoner, Lieutenant. She insisted we come this way.” Cassandra replied, beaming in Emily’s direction.

“The prisoner? Then you…?” the soldier batted their eyes and looked to Emily as well with a small nod.

“Closing rifts and saving soldiers. It’s what I do now.” Emily said with a small laugh, and the soldier laughed a small chuckle as well.

“Then you have my sincere gratitude.” The soldier replied, sincere gratitude evident in their voice. “If the route behind you is clear, I believe I will lead my soldier back to Haven, my Lady.”

Cassandra gives the lieutenant a nod, and with a salute the soldier leads the remaining able-bodied men back down the path we came.

“The path ahead appears to be clear of demons as well.” Solas remarked as the soldiers disappear from view.

“Let’s hurry, before that changes.” Cassandra nodded her head in understanding, making us continue down the path. We come to a small cliff, and Cassandra is the first to head over the side. “Down the ladder. That’s the way to the temple.”

We follow the Seeker down a few ladders, and the smoke in the air as we approach the temple is hard to ignore. I scrunch up my nose, but daren’t make any remarks.

“So… holes in the fade don’t just accidentally happen right?” Varric asked towards Solas, who hums in acknowledgement.

“If enough magic is brought to bear, it _is_ possible.” The elf conceded to Varric’s quip.

“But there are easier ways to make things explode.” Connor added to the conversation, a little too eager to prove his point.

“That is true.” Solas hummed again, keeping his eyes forward and his mind always at work.

“We will consider how this happened once the immediate danger is past.” Cassandra scoffed at our banter and kept an iron look as we came into sight of the ruined temple.

“The Temple of Sacred Ashes.” Solas sighed, looking about the wreckage and burnt bodies as we slowly walked through the ruins.

“What’s left of it.” Varric sighed somberly. Everyone seems antsy at being in the temple, and I don’t blame them. A shitty thing happened here, man.

“That is where you walked out the Fade and our soldiers found you.” Cassandra mentioned to Emily as we pass a ruined archway. “They said a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was.” _Almost everyone._

“The breach is a long way up.” Varric whistled and looks towards the gaping green hole that _keeps_ getting bigger at each passing moment. After a few moments of silence and just walking about the temple entrance, I heard footsteps and turn to see Leliana approaching from behind with some soldiers.

“You’re here! Thank the Maker.” Leliana rushed up and grasped Cassandra’s shoulder briefly. Cassandra in turn gave her a small smile.

“Leliana, have your men take up positions around the temple.” The seeker directed, and Leliana nods and walks away to give her directions.

“This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?” Cassandra asked quietly to Emily, so I had to strain my ears to hear her voice.

“I’ll try, but I don’t know if I can reach that, much less close it.” Emily answered honestly, shrugging her shoulders at Cassandra’s words.

“No. This rift was the first and is the key. Seal it, and perhaps we seal the Breach.” Solas explained to the group.

“Then let’s find a way down. And be careful.” Cassandra replied, determined, and began to lead us down to the large open space below the balcony we occupied. As we got closer, my body tensed until the first echo could be heard.

 _“Now is the hour of our victory. Bring forth the sacrifice.”_ A booming and frightening voice echoed around the temple. I jump, and I’m glad to say I wasn’t the only one at such the sudden noise.

“What are we hearing?” Cassandra demanded, but to no one in particular. I looked around, and no one seemed to even know how to answer the Seeker.

“At a guess: The person who created the Breach.” Solas suggested, and once again I felt that I was burning a hole into the back of his skull in secret anger. We slowly moved forwards, keeping our senses alert and making sure that everyone stayed safe. As rounded a corner, and spike of red lyrium was growing out of the ground on the right side of the path.

“You know this stuff is red lyrium, Seeker.” Varric said with tense caution in his voice, eyeing the spiky rock with a careful gaze.

“I can see it, Varric.” Cassandra replied with an edge to her voice. I felt Varric sigh from beside me.

“But what it’s doing _here_ , is what I’m asking,” the dwarf shook his head at Cassandra easily shaking off his concerns.

“Magic could have drawn on lyrium beneath the temple, corrupted it…” Solas theorized, but no one else seemed to know much else. As we passed by the corrupted lyrium, I notice that Varric takes the most caution to avoid any contact with its surface or its weird glowing aura.

 _“Keep the sacrifice still.”_ The masculine voice boomed again as we made our way down a small flight of stairs.

 _“Someone help me!”_ A woman’s voice cried into the surround temple, fear plain in her words.

“That is Divine Justinia’s voice!” Cassandra shouted, trying to look around to see if she could spot the woman in question, but I knew her efforts were in vain.

 _“Someone help me!”_ The woman’s – Justinia’s – voice echoed out again.

 _“What’s going on here?”_ I hear an echoed version of Emily’s voice surround us, and Emily seems the most shocked to hear her own voice.

“That was your voice. Most Holy called out to you. But…” Cassandra looked to Emily behind her, and a suspicious look glazed across her features.

There is a flash of white light that makes me shield my eyes for a few moments, and then ghostly images appear. The form of what I assume to be Divine Justinia was floating while being held in place by red energy wrapped around her arms. A large dark figure with glowing red eyes loomed over her. A ghastly version of Emily was standing just at the far end of the illusion room.

“Tell me I’m not the only one seeing. _Please_ tell me I’m not going insane.” Conner muttered darkly, and I notice his knuckles were white where he kept a firm grip on his bow. I look to him with a sympathetic gaze.

 _“What’s going on here?”_ This time I jump to hear my own voice ring out through the open temple, and Cassandra is one of the first to shoot me a shocked glare.

 _“Run while you can! Warn them!”_ Justinia’s form yelled out, and I can barely make out what happens to me and Emily as the illusion shifts view.

 _“We have intruders. Kill them. Now.”_ The large ghostly form called out, and a shiver runs through my body. _If and when I face that man I swear I might vomit and pass out from the sheer authority and danger his voice alone commands!_ Another bright flash of white light and the visions disappear.

“You were there! Who attacked? And the Divine, is she…? Was this vision true? What are we seeing?” Cassandra demanded, looking at Emily who barely has time to register the Seeker’s words of blame. “And you! Were you at the Conclave as well? What is going on here…” Cassandra’s last words seemed to be directed at me.

“She said she didn’t remember, and in case anyone forgot, there’s literally a rip in the heavens that could collapse and kill us all at _any_ moment, so I don’t think now is a good time to play the blame game,” I spat out, and I felt many eyes on my back. I ignored them, knowing my words to be true.

“Echoes of what happened here. The Fade bleeds into this place.” Solas explained with a lost sound to his voice, as he seems to look about the temple with sadness. But he regains his composure and looked towards Emily expectantly. “This rift is not sealed, but it is closed… albeit temporarily. I believe with the mark, the rift can be opened and then sealed properly and safely. However, opening the rift will likely attract attention from the other side.”

“That means demons. Stand ready!” Cassandra raised her voice so hopefully the soldiers standing above us would be able to hear. They must have, because I spot a few readying their weapons for the imminent battle.

I see Emily visibly gulp, but she raises her hand and uses the mark to open the rift. With a bright flash of pale green light, a giant roar booms across the field and I spy a giant pride demon on the other side of the rift. I freeze in my shoes, and I feel Connor and Margaret do the same, but I shake us all out of it. With a battle cry, Margaret runs ahead to join Cassandra and Emily in the fray, and Connor notched an arrow and does his best to hit his targets. I fumbled slightly with my staff, but I confidently focus my breathing and soon I began to volley out bursts of flame and ice towards the purple beast almost as fast as Solas.

Mind you, he was eons of experience with magic most likely and is holding back some of his true powers, but even if we’re matched for speed I could never match his magical prowess. His fire seemed to burn longer, his ice seemed to bite deeper, and although the demon was quite resistant to lightning, his shock waves seemed to stun the creature albeit only a bit.

The battle seemed to go on forever, but it must have only been a short while until the demon’s defenses began to wear out. I know my blasts kept getting weaker due to my exhaustion, but I couldn’t bail now: they needed everyone to fight – to the death, if necessary.

I kept all my friends within my sight at all times when possible. Margaret was doing wonders at using her lithe form to duck and dodge the monster’s attacks as she swooped in to deal blows to its legs and upper thighs. Connor kept a close distance to Varric, and when one would take a small break to reload their arrows, the other would cover their back by doubling the output of shots towards the creature. And Emily, she kept her shield up and her sword arm ready to blow whenever she saw an opening, and I noticed that she was always watching her battlefield to see where Cassandra would strike and then choose a place away from the Seeker’s attack.

They were learning quickly. It frightened me a little.  

With a deafening roar, the demon finally fell, and I could exhale a breath I never knew I was holding. I scanned the field, looking to see if everyone was okay, and I could see none of my friends with any bodily wounds, but the same could not be said for all of the soldiers that Leliana brought with her. I mutter a quick thanks to their sacrifices, and I look to Emily who warily stared down the giant rift.

“Now! Seal the rift!” Cassandra yelled from somewhere to my left, and I see my sister take a deep breath before lifting her hand once again to close a hole in basically the very fabric of space. I watch as green tendrils lash from her palm and try to wrangle the rift into submission, but it was much stronger than the other rifts we faced along the way. I kept my breath held, watching her for any signs that she needed help. I saw one of her knees begin to buckle, and I cursed – quite loudly, as I spooked Margaret who stood a ways away.

Throwing down my gloves into the ashen ground, I ran to my sister’s side, and I grabbed her right hand in my left, pulling her back to her feet and helping her steady herself as more green tendrils kept appearing and tugging her towards the rift.

Ignoring the shocked gasps from around the temple, I faced the rift and lifted my right hand and watched as green tendrils snaked from her arm and now mine.

_It was the worst pain I had felt in the world. I wonder how Emily had dealt with it this whole time._

It felt like something from with my palm was trying to claw its way towards the surface, and I had to constantly pull my arm back towards me to reel in this raw power. Now with the two of us working to close this beast of a rift, it was finally tamed.

A giant snap shut, and a broken silence as a flash of green reverberated through the temple. My arms going lax, the last thing I remember before I fell was the grateful look on my sister’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seven chapters and 20k words later, we come to basically the end of the prologue lol. I warned it would be a slow burn, and not necessarily for just the romance~ From here on out things might get a bit hectic and out of control, but I'll find some way to tame the creative spirit :0


	8. Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Sorry about the long wait - work has been hectic this past week, and I've not had much time to type! For your patience, I'm pretty sure this is the longest chapter yet, and I hope you enjoy~

Although I knew I must have been resting for the past few days, my entire body ached. My arms, my legs, _god_ , even my mind hurt. Maybe that’s how it is for a beginner mage? _God, I don’t have any clues._

Pale sunlight drifted through the small windows, reaching my eyes just enough for it to burn them from being so used to the darkness. I grumbled and groaned, burying my head deeper into the thin pillow to try and block out the light, hoping to maybe get a few more minutes of peaceful rest because I knew the moment I would enter back into this fictitious reality, all hell might _literally_ break loose.

_I don’t know if I was a genius to expose myself as bearing another mark in front of Cassandra and everyone else at the temple, or if it was just plain stupid – maybe just blind fear for my sister’s wellbeing._

I didn’t want to get up, but I knew I had to. Emily needed to have things explained to her, and Margaret and Connor needed concreate answers as well. _I just hope that they had a brain cell between them to warn Emily to not expose our true lives._

If _anyone_ found out we were from an entirely different reality where their world is just a silly game, and if both Emily and I bear a mark that tore the heavens down to Earth (or Thedas? We’ll go with that) it might just make us seem a _bit_ more suspicious. I would like to not be executed for treason against the entire world, thank you very much.

Groaning again, I peeled my eyes open – not even trying to move yet – I blinked slowly to take in what I could from my position. With my head still on the pillow and looking to the right (I believe?) I could tell I was in what appeared to be a small wooden cabin. The bed I was laying on must be against the back wall or very close to it, for everything that needed to be here looked like it was all in front of me. A small nightstand next to the bed, a dresser opposite the bed next to the wooden door, and a small coat rack next to the dresser. Whatever was on the right wall could wait – I didn’t really want to turn my head or get up yet, really. Inhaling deeply, I tried to think.

_Three days. I’ve been asleep for at least three days. A lot can happen in that short time…_

Blinking slowly again, I barely register the opening of the door and the soft thud it made when it closed again. Rapidly trying to my eyes to better adjust to the light, I blink in surprise to see someone I didn’t expect looking down on me with a playful grin.

“I think an entire week is enough lazy time, eh?” Emily laughs playfully, shrugging off what looked like a heavy leather coat and placing it on the rack. I look at her, still not moving from my position on the bed, letting my mind catch up to her words.

“A week…?” I ask, coughing slightly from my dry throat. “…damn.” A chuckle escapes her lips as she approaches me and takes a seat on the edge of the bed.

“Yeah, I woke up a few days ago and everyone’s been worried, thinking you’d never wake up… that stunt you pulled wasn’t really making anyone laugh.” Emily said softly, looking downcast and my heart fluttered. _God, this life is shitty._

With a sigh, I sit up slowly, my back and my arms cracking slightly from the sudden use. I look to her with an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry, kid. I didn’t mean to worry you or anybody else.” I tell her sincerely, trying to give her a little bit of peace.

“I don’t understand, Kandice. Margaret and Connor explained to me as best they could when they could, but I don’t _understand_. Why you, why me, and why now? And _how,_ even. How could this ever happen?” She asked suddenly, her words getting more heated as she continued, and I could see that her left hand was clutching hard onto the bed sheet. I slowly put a hand on hers, trying to calm her down. With a deep breath she looked at me for answers.

“Well, uh, I’ll explain as best I can.” I cough again, and take a deep breath. “This world, Thedas, is different from Earth – there’s magic and elves and demons and shit like that. What I believe: that flash of green lightning that started this all? – it was a small fade rift that pulled us through to this world. Now, back home, this world is simply a video game I used to play all the time back in high school. I’d spend hours just expending all the dialogue choices and delving deep into their world. But we’re here, in a world that _should not_ exist, and I’ve got no fucking clue why. And now we’re balls deep in saving the world, and I literally have _no idea_ what to do.”

I finished, and Emily just looked at me, taking in all the information I threw at her and trying to get something from my words. I waited patiently for her answer.

“Okay, uh,” she exhaled deeply, her face contorted with concentration. “One; watch your profanity. Even if this world is some medieval fantasy crap, it doesn’t excuse your bad language. Two; if this world is simply a game, can’t you just tell everyone what’s going to happen, and we can all live happily ever after?”

Emily looked at me with her deep brown eyes expectantly, some glimmer of hope in her irises. I shook my head, sighing softly.

“I would, but I can’t.” I begin, and she opens her mouth to retort, but I raise a hand and she stops her words. “Well, if we’re being honest; I won’t. And do you know why? The damn butterfly effect, is why. If I tell them now the guy behind everything and how to save their world with a simple stroll up to the Chantry saying ‘hey, I know what’s going on – here’s how to save your miserable lives!’ one of two things could happen; I’d be killed on the spot, or at least arrested for suspicious activity in knowing how an entire temple exploded and _killed hundreds_ in seconds. Or, this is the least likely to happen, they could believe my words, and we’d begin battle preparations. But what then? What would be missed, important details that I forgot over time that could literally impact their entire world from then on. An important noble that needed to live but died in the final battle, or a simple quest that could determine how everything turned out might be forgotten or deemed too little to focus on when the big baddie is just somewhere over a mountain. So you see; no, I won’t tell them what I know, and I hope you trust me to not tell them either, because I want to save their world – but the proper way, the way that I know how to do it, saving as many people as we can and I hope to god we can just do that simple thing in time.”

I take a breath, and look at her with hard eyes. She blinks back at me, not saying anything for a few minutes.

“Did you know they’re calling me ‘The Herald of Andraste?” Emily says suddenly with a small chuckle. “I don’t even know who that is, but Margaret had the sense to warn to not say anything suspicious, so I kept my mouth shut and just nodded along to Cassandra’s words. Apparently, I’m some godly figure’s messenger sent here to help her people in their time of need, and I can barely think of myself for one minute of the day without being badgered to work with my sword or talk with my advisors in the war room. But I’ve visited you everyday since I woke up and it’s the one time of peace I get in the middle of the day before I go to bed for the night.”

“So yeah, I trust you. You must know what you’re doing, yeah? Just promise me you won’t die, okay?” Emily replies confidently, giving me a smile of confidence. I give a smile back, and I pull her in to a small hug, glad to finally be able to hold her since everything we’ve been through.

“I have one question though; who changed my clothes while I slept?” I asked skeptically.

“The healer, Adan, and Solas. Why?”

~

With red ears and weird looks from Emily, I got up – with a little but of a struggle – and was able to get outdoor appropriate clothes on and some sturdy boots and soon we were out the door and into the chilly air of Haven.

“Where to?” Emily asked with a small grin, jumping from foot to foot awaiting my answer.

“The Chantry. We should let your advisors know I’m awake. I’m sure they have questions too – I just don’t know how I’ll answer.” I replied honestly, taking a deep breath and motioning for her to lead the way up the path to the large building. She gladly took the lead, a small skip in her step, and I kept smiling at my weirdo of a sister. A child a heart, but still so mature and caring for those around her. Past more tents and wooden houses, we kept a slow walk just to bask in the idle chatter of the village around us.

“By the way, where are the other two nerds?” I ask with a curious look to Emily. She shrugs her shoulders in response.

“I think Cullen found someone who knew daggers well enough to show Margaret the basics of fighting with them – maybe one of Leliana’s people – and I think Varric took Connor under his wing to show him how to properly shoot a bow and arrow.” Emily answered after a time. “They’ve been put to work, that’s for sure. Leliana and Josephine had their questions and they didn’t have answers, and with Cassandra’s witness at the temple, they seemed harmless to her for now and so they’ve been training.”

I nodded in understanding, and I was glad for my friends. Some proper training wouldn’t hurt – to have competence with the weapon they wielded would prove to be useful if they were to ever be in a real battle. And I was also glad that they could keep their promises to say I don’t know to any questions they realistically couldn’t answer – especially to Leliana: that woman was damn intimidating when she wanted to be.

As we walked, I could notice that some villagers and soldiers in the town would look at us and murmur among themselves, and I understood that we must seem out of out place misfits to them, but it still gave me a weird feeling for them to be talking about _me_.

“I know, its weird. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that.” Emily told me when she noticed me looking around to the people milling about. I gave a sheepish shake of my head, and she gave out a small laugh at my embarrassment.

We kept our slow pace, just enjoying each other’s peaceful presence after such a hectic start in this world. Words didn’t need to be said at how much we enjoyed the others company – despite the squabbles that normal siblings were prone to.

Soon the large building came in to view, and I shuddered a little. Beside me, Emily gave me a sympathetic look, patting me lightly on the arm in a supportive manner.

“Ready to face The Trinity?” she asked with a small grin. At her words, I gave her a confused look and she let out a small laugh. “Cullen, Josephine, and Leliana: duh. They’re a trinity – always working together in some weird way, despite the way they bicker and argue all the time, and are the turning gears behind all this Inquisition stuff.”

I nodded my head at her words and as I did, she stopped in her steps. I gave her another confused look.

“What’s the matter?” I asked sincerely. She shook her head slightly, looking to me with a sheepish face.

“I though I spoiled everything for you – since I’ve woken up, Cassandra enacted some ‘ye olde rite of the Divine’ and made an Inquisition, and now we’re like a rebel group trying to face down some eviler rebels – but I remembered that you kind of know everything already.” She looked sideways, a blush of embarrassment lightly dusting her cheeks. Another small laugh escaped my lips.

“Oh, that’s fine. I’ll have to feign ignorance when Josephine explains everything – albeit only a little – basing everything I’m supposed to know from what you’ve told me just now.” I say with a comforting smile. She looks up and gives me a small smile in return.

“Ah, I guess you’re right. Just silly old me worrying about nothing important, like usual.” Emily replied with a chuckle as we begun our walk again.

“Don’t say that – your concerns are valid, and I appreciate that you’re trying to look out for me. I know I’d do the same for you,” I told her with a look of sibling-love, if you could call it that. Another smile brightens her face as we enter the large Chantry doors. A few of the sisters give Emily small bows as they pass us, on their way to do errands most likely, and we walk farther into the building.

“Josephine should be in her office. I’m not sure that everyone is still in the Chantry – Cassandra and Cullen might be down on the training grounds and Leliana might be in her tent, though I didn’t see her when we passed it. Josephine’s office seems like our best bet.” Emily explains, leading me towards what I assume to be the woman’s office. Now that I’m not in any rush to find Emily, I take the time to look around the Chantry as we stroll to our destination.

The layout is fairly similar to what I remember in-game: A long hallway with a few side rooms and doors leading to farther parts of the building, and that one door that lead lower to the basement level. What sparks my thoughts, though, is that it seems… grander, that what it should have been. The hall was longer, with more doors and rooms along the passage – that made sense, since in a game only the essentials are shown and in this real world, everything has a purpose. _I wonder if the Chantry sisters live in this building? I’ve honestly got no clue._

I’m pulled out of my thoughts by Emily softly knocking on what I assume to be Josephine’s office door. I never heard a reply, but she must have, because after a few moments Emily opened the door to reveal a dimly lit room with a desk near the back wall and another along the wall to my right, with a short elven woman peering over papers and objects strewn about. By the desk near the back sat a woman with dark skin and even darker hair, adorned in a beautiful navy and golden outfit, that seemed to reflect the light of the few candles that were illuminating the papers on her own desk. Looking up to meet us, the woman regarded Emily with a small smile and beckoned us closer as Emily closed the door behind her.

“Ah, Herald. I did not expect to se you again today after our council was adjourned for the day. Do what may I owe this pleasure?” Josephine asked in her smooth silky voice – and I smiled softly, remembering many fond memories of playing Inquisition with Josie as a trusted friend.

“Hey Josephine, I know, its crazy to see me twice in one day, right? Before I headed down to train with Cassandra, I stopped in to visit my sister, and ta-da! Here she is! Kandice, meet Josephine. Josephine, meet Kandice!” Emily introduced with a smile on her face, and I couldn’t help but mirror her face. At Emily’s introduction, though, Josephine immediately stood up and briskly bowed, a shocked look on her face and a confused one on mine.

“I-I I apologize, my lady! I did not recognize who you were, you look nothing like your sister! Allow me to formally introduce myself; Josephine Montilyet, ambassador and chief diplomat for the reborn inquisition! I stand to serve and aid in any political issues that may arise with the Breech still looming in the sky and –” Josephine rambles, but looses her train of thought when Emily interrupts her with a small laugh.

“Oh, Josephine, take a breath! She’s no important noble you need to blabber with all day, same as me. Just some ordinary girl stuck in an unfortunate situation.” Emily explained with a reassuring smile towards the woman in question. Josephine exhales a quiet breath, and looks to Emily with gratitude.

“I apologize, again. I am just not so accustomed to speaking so informally on a general basis – having been involved in Orlais’ court and political stream for so long.” Josephine answered with a small breath. “It is good to formally meet you, Kandice. From the short time I have known your sister, she has spoken nothing but good things. Even Leliana and Cassandra remark on your iron determination – to finding your sister in the first place and then helping with the assault on the Breech, they both seem to admire these attributes of yours.”

“Oh, uh, thanks – I guess.” I replied, a light blush of embarrassment dotting my cheeks. “It’s good to meet you, too – from what Emily’s told me, you’re pretty important in this whole scheme of things, no? I’m glad to have someone of competence helping my sister in these tough times.”

“Oh, you give me too much credit, my lady!” Josephine waved off my words as she settled back into her chair. “Like I said, I am a simple politician mostly hoping to keep ourselves from receiving too much negative backlash from Ferelden and Orlais. It is just my job.”

I nodded with her words – although she was selling herself quite short – and I followed Emily’s movements and sat in one of the chairs opposite of Josephine.

“Oh, Josephine – you know you do _much_ more than that! But I’m not here to really talk about your job: I felt it would be important for someone who knew what they were doing to explain everything to Kandice – I know I’d never be able to find the right words.” Emily said with a small laugh, and I shook my heads at her antics. _I already know most of this, you dumb bum. But, I suppose it’d be okay to hear it from everyone else’s perspective._

“Oh, yes! That does indeed seem like a good idea, Herald.” Josephine quipped, shuffling some pages around on her desk until she found what she was looking for. From our position, it simply looked like a regular document of something unknown. “I apologize in advance for not knowing more than I do – but I will explain as best I can, my lady. Since the stabilization of the Breech, the hole in the heavens has stopped growing, although we do keep getting reports of stray rifts all throughout Ferelden and Orlais. It has been seven days since then, four since your sister has woken up. When Emily first awoke, we met in the Chantry where Cassandra invoked the writ of the Divine to rebuild an new Inquisition – a group focused on bringing peace back to Thedas. That brought us to our next point of focus – trying to close the Breech permanently. Our options are to either approach the rebel mages of Redcliff or the Templar Order for assistance, as they both are quite powerful factions, but neither group will hold an audience for us – yet. The Chantry has denounced the Inquisition – and your sister specifically.”

“Yeah, apparently, they don’t like it when you come out of the Fade claiming to be some Herald of some Holy entity,” Emily added with a chuckle, and Josephine gave her a sideways glare.

“Yes, although it might be stated more eloquently.” Josephine continued, “As many rumors begin to spread about Haven and through Ferelden and Orlais, they believe your sister to be a sign from the Maker – the Herald of Andraste, his bride – to have been sent through the Fade bearing some strange mark to try and piece Thedas back together.”

“What about me, though?” I asked, lifting up my right hand showing the palm to Josephine. The green mark was much duller than the last time I looked at it – the weird green veins lacing my palm seemed to be… asleep, or something, as it no longer seemed to be ‘active’. At my words, Josephine looked away with a small cough. I quirked an eyebrow at her actions.

“Well, you see… Cassandra thought it wise to keep your mark unknown. You weren’t discovered at the Temple – you must have fallen through a rift somewhere farther away – and no one but the soldiers present at your closing of that large rift atop the mountain saw you using the mark, and Cassandra and Cullen both have had them sworn to secrecy. She felt it… necessary to keep everyone unaware to a second mark, as people seem to not even take the news lightly to simply one person bearing it. All anyone in Haven believes is that you were too close to the rift when it closed, and must have received some kind of backlash when it did.” Josephine explained with a tight-lipped smile, and I tried to keep a straight face.

 _So, I come to this world I know, with the one thing that can save them, and I get no recognition at all?!?_ I exhaled a breath, looking downcast with a scowl. I felt Emily pat my shoulder as to say, ‘sorry bud’, and after a moment I looked back to Josephine who seemed to be expecting a reaction.

“Okay, secret mark-bearer. I can handle that. What now?” I answered with a hard look, and Josephine nodded with a smile.

“Now, since you are awake – there is work that needs to be done. I think it too late in the day to discuss much more without everyone else present, but I welcome you to join our council tomorrow to continue in our efforts to seal the Breech.” Josephine explained. “You are a mage, no? From what Cassandra told me, you seem to know very little about your abilities. As Emily will most likely return to her training with the Seeker, may I suggest seeking out our resident mage Solas? He may be able to assist you with honing your magic.”

“Oh, sure, okay. Seems like a good idea.” I answered, although I could barely hide the twitch of my eyebrow at her suggestion. _This could be interesting._

“Well, thank you Josephine! I’m sure that helped Kandice a bunch! Now, like you said, I should try to find Cassandra before she thinks to punish me for being so late.” Emily gave Josephine a smile of gratitude as we both stood up, and Josephine followed our actions, her giving a small bow.

“I am glad I could be of service, Herald. I bid you both a good day.” Josephine said as we left the room, closing the door softly as went. We walked in silence until we exited the Chantry doors, and Emily stopped me with a smirk on the steps of the church.

“What was that back there? What’s your deal with Solas?” Emily smirked, jabbing me lightly in the side. I exhale a sigh, shaking my head at her words.

“Its nothing, Emily. I just… know things I shouldn’t. It makes things _very_ complicated.” I answered, giving her another glare. She just laughed off my words.

“Oh sure, I believe you.” She said, rolling her eyes in amusement. “But, I really should go. Do you need directions? Wait, don’t answer – of course you don’t, you dingus.”

I chuckled at her actions, and bid her farewell as I watched her make her way down the same path we followed earlier. As she left me sight, I turned to the left and began walking on a new path, one I knew that led towards Adan’s cabin and my destination, too. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts.

_Don’t think about him. For all I know, he could have some kind of telekinetic powers or some shit and read my thoughts. THAT would not be good. Try to stay calm – think about… cats! Cats are good animals, they’re good friends… I miss my cats…_

A small frown on my face from sad memories, I come to small enclosed area where three cabins sat in some sort of half circle. On the farthest cabin, the man I was searching for was simply lounging against the wall, looking up to the still-there Breech with a look of concern lacing his features.

“It’s weird, isn’t it? Some hole in the sky looming above us, that could literally rip open the heavens and kill us at any moment. Fun, right?” I said cynically, walking up beside him. He looked towards me with a frown.

“I do believe it to be more complex than that. The Breech is an unknown magic, that is stable for now, but I do believe you are half-correct. It could have destroyed this world, were it not for the efforts of the Herald, and you too, if I remember correctly.” Solas explained, giving me a sideways glance, then shaking his head. “I apologize. I do not believe you are here to listen to me explain such higher powers than what you must understand. What may I do for you?”

With a twitch of my eye at his remark, I tried to keep a straight face.

“Josephine told me you knew magic and stuff. She said you could help.” I said shortly, keeping a fake smile on my face. Another frown laced his features.

“What could I help you with? You are a mage, are you not? If you were formally taught in a Circle, there is not much that I know about magical theory that you would not already know.” Solas asked, looking to me with a weird look. I coughed, clearing my throat.

“Well, good for you then – I’ve never even seen the outside of one of them. I woke up after falling through the Fade – from what I believe – and I’ve had magic since then. Never have I had any abilities before that.” I told the elf, and another frown graced his face. _Jeez, does all this man do is frown?!_

“That is… curious.” Solas muttered, a look of thinking crossing his face. “If that is the case then, how were you able to cast during the battles where I was alongside you? You seemed to be quite proficient in casting those basic spells of yours.”

“I don’t know.” I answered bluntly. “It was a panicked reaction – the first time I used magic was before me and my friends came to Haven, when a demon attacked us, and I just tried to… make it go away, I guess. After that, I just channeled the same feeling I had from before, and then… magic. I can’t really explain it, sorry.”

“Hm.” Was all Solas said, before turning to walk down a path. “Come, then. We shall see what you can do.”

I stared at him for a moment, before I regained my senses and I scrambled to catch up with him as he walked down by the tavern and soon we were walking through the open gates of Haven.

“It would be best to cast magic outside of Haven, since not many appreciate or understand mages.” Solas explained and I nodded in understanding. Solas kept us at a brisk pace despite no need to rush, his height and long legs working against my short stature. We walked past the training grounds, and I tried to spot Emily or Margaret or Connor, but I couldn’t see any of them through the throng of soldiers all fighting and training and swinging their swords and weapons. Soon we were within the wooded area surrounding Haven, and the sounds of the soldiers was getting quieter the farther we walked.

After a few more minutes of walking (or maybe it could called be fast-walking, since he kept walking _so damn fast_ , that little bitch) we came to a small clearing with trees surrounding us on all sides. Solas stopped and I almost bumped into his back bit I stopped myself just in time. He looked around and then nodded his head.

“Here will do.” Solas said as he hummed in approval. “I will see what you can already accomplish on your own, and I will decide from there what I can do to help improve your abilities. If your as natural as you claim, there may be not much need for my assistance.”

I nodded at his words, with a small smirk glazing my features, determination in my eyes.

_Let’s show this little elf boy what we can do!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, how I love and hate Solas at the same time. Up next, some fun with magic and some more people will be formally introduced (I believe lol)


	9. Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back~ In this chapter, I take a few liberties on how I perceive magic to be like to a complete newb - but please be kind to me if anything seems wrong! I've only every played inquisition, so if something happens about learning magic in the other two games I'm so sorry! I'll try the best I can to educate myself on the other games, but if you feel like you could help me with some things here and there I'd be eternally grateful!
> 
> But like I said, magic in this chapter, and we meet up with some old friends! I hope you enjoy, as always!

I looked to Solas with an expectant look, waiting for him to tell me what to do, and all he did was stand there with a stupid grin on his face. _What’s he doing? Didn’t he say he wanted to test my abilities? Why is he stalling?_

A small look of frustration crossed my features as I walked in place impatiently, waiting for him to say _something._ He just kept looking at me, and suddenly a small chuckle escaped his lips.

“Oh? What’s so funny there Mr. Apostate?” I said, quirking an eyebrow in his direction. He shook his head, and still with that ‘all-knowing’ look on his face.

“Do you purposely intend to cast without your staff? Or are you just very confident in your beginner abilities?” Solas asked with a smirk, leaning on his own staff. Color drained from my face momentarily as I froze in embarrassment from his words.

“Oh shit, well, uh…” I started, looking sheepishly at the mage. “I didn’t think about that… honestly I just woke up less than like two hours ago so my brain’s still a bit foggy… come to think of it, I don’t even know if it made its way back to Haven…”. A frustrated look crossed my face, as I began to pace the snowy clearing, trying to avoid Solas’s gaze.

_Dumbass. Way to make a stupid impression in front of him! Now he’s going to treat you like an incompetent child!_

With my ears red and my eyes avoiding his, the chuckle that reached my ears only made things worse.

“No matter, we can reschedule for another day.” Solas began, a smirk still ghosting his face. “If you still wish for my expertise and aid, I can teach you more of the theoretical aspects of being a mage.”

“Oh, uh, sure… if it won’t bother you too much,” I replied, my ears still slightly red from my stupidness. _Why are you being so blushy around the stupid elf, of all people?! Don’t forget what he is!_ I shake my head, brushing off my thoughts, and look towards the apostate as if to ask, ‘what’s next’.

“Good. I suppose with the proper training you could become a much better mage than your current skill level suggests.” Solas began, and I had to fight off the urge to retaliate against his words. _Just cause you’re like thousands of years old doesn’t mean that everyone else is stupid and incompetent._ I took a deep breath to calm myself and to focus back onto his words. “We will begin with testing your connection to the Fade. Without that connection, you would not be able to perform any magical feats that you currently can – the Fade supports and gives all mages the power to actually perform their magic.”

“Okay, that makes sense. No connection, no magic,” I muse, and his face lights up for the briefest moment. _If this were the game, I swear I would see the little pop up of ‘Solas Slightly Approves!’ just now!_

“Yes, exactly. Now, if you would…” Solas breaks off and looks around for a moment, until his eyes finally found what they were looking for. “That rock ledge over there. Would you mind taking a seat and getting yourself comfortable?”

I raise an eyebrow at his weird question, but I don’t try to reason with him. I walk past Solas and to the rock ledge he mentioned. It wasn’t that high off the ground, so I was able to easily climb on top and take a seat, crossing my legs as I did.

“What next?” I ask with a small grin, although it was hard to hide the fact that the rock was _super_ cold on my bum.

“Close your eyes and touch the Fade.” Solas said with a straight face as if it were the simplest thing in the world – and I had to resist the urge to make an audible noise of protest.

“What.” I replied, dumfounded by his simplistic idea to ‘touch’ the Fade. Solas gave me a small glare and rolled his eyes.

“You’ve touched the Fade before, but you never realized what you were doing.” Solas chided. “Only after reaching for the Fade can a mage be able to garner enough power to cast their spells, not before, so whether or not you were aware of your connection to the Veil, now you must try and reach for the Fade – on purpose, this time – and then we will continue with your training.”

“Okay, I _get_ that whole ‘magic comes from the Fade’ spiel but the question is: _how_ do you _actually touch_ the Fade?” I countered, leaning forwards to rest my head in my hands, as my elbows rested on my knees. With my words, Solas’s eyes seemed to twitch in frustration.

“You reach for the Fade, and you grasp its power in your hand, drawing it into your body to enable your casting powers. There is really no simpler way to define it – you must just reach for whatever energy you claimed to have found when you would spell cast before. That is the way of the mage.” Solas glared, and I made a face right back at him. He sighed and shook his head at me. “If you will not simply try, there is no reason to teach you more complex magics. You obviously lack the skills to face even a child.”

“Oh alright, Mr. Egghead, I’ll do your stupid ‘touch the Fade and ye shall be all powerful’ and shit, but if I like die from whatever it’s gonna be your fault.” I grumbled, sitting back up straight and closing my eyes. I didn’t get to see his reaction, but I could hear his loud scoff and I rolled my closed eyes at him once more. _Okay, we gotta focus now. Let’s prove this egg wrong and then he’ll be sorry for dissing us!_

_No, I think we gotta work on this whole ‘multiple personalities and talking to yourself’ bit, but whatever works for you I guess._

_God, shut up. Gotta focus. Focus!_

I took a deep breath and tried to channel the same energy from before – now since I know, I guess I’m trying to reach for the Fade. It… didn’t work very well.

“Okay, I know I’m trying to touch the Fade, but what’s my goal after that? Do I cast a spell? A barrier? Like, what’s my purpose?” I ask Solas with a confused look, opening my eyes to look at the elf in question.

“No. You simply must touch the Fade – there is no other purpose. As a mage, if you can consciously connect your body to the Fade in the waking world, when you go to cast from then on, you would be able to summon Fade energy at larger quantities and much faster than before.” Solas explained, leaning on his staff a way away, looking almost bored. I sigh again and close my eyes, trying to ‘connect’ with the Fade.

_Alright. Touch the green void – simple, yeah? Like fuck it is. Okay, breath. Think about magic – casting fireballs or ice spike… but I just want that buzz of energy before I summon the magic. Ugh, I don’t even remember how to even find the energy to cast._

Deep breaths, and I squint my closed eyes in frustration. It’s like trying to find your way through a maze, but that maze is your head and there’s no end in sight. But I keep trying – can’t let Solas see that I’m a poor excuse for a mage, now can I?

So, let’s think of that maze, yeah? I trying to imagine hedge walls surrounding me, and I slowly walk forwards until I need to take a left. _Okay, this is working. Let’s just follow this path and see where it goes…_

Walking through this maze in my mind – god, Emily would call me crazy if she could see me now – and a crossroads shows up. Up, left, or right? I reach my right hand out (in my mind, not that Solas could see) and I ‘feel’ for the magic in the air. I could feel a small buzz coming from the right, so I stuck with my gut and followed the feeling.

More mind walking, another right and two lefts, and keeping straight for a bit, until I come to a dead end.

_Seriously? I thought this would work… Ugh, I even followed that stupid feeling of magic… What a waste…_

I sigh internally and turn around to retrace my steps, until the hair on the back of my neck prickles up suddenly. I turn back around to face the end of the hedge, and I see now that it is glowing softly, the soft glow being same green as the hedge surrounding me that I barely recognized it before. I slowly reach out to touch the glowing hedge. With a cry of pain, I suddenly roll back off my rock, cradling my right hand to my chest.

“Oh my – Kandice, are you alright?” Solas asked with worry lacing his voice, as he threw his staff to the side and ran to help me sit back up. Graciously accepting his hand, I was pulled to my feet, wincing a little from the pain of my stiff legs.

“Oh, uh, I think so? Don’t know what happened, but it hurt like a bitch.” I muttered, rubbing the back of my head softly. I didn’t feel any blood, so that was good – only a few scratches and maybe some bruises from this encounter. I looked down to my right palm to see that the mark was… brighter? than it was this morning. “Huh. That’s weird.”

“Curious.” Solas marvelled, taking my right had into his, gazing at the web of green that criss-crossed my palm. “Did you manage to touch the Fade as you meditated? You were still for quite some time.”

“I… I think so? I walked through this maze for a bit until I came to a dead end, and then it started to glow, so I just touched it… I don’t really know how to explain…” I mumbled, trying to keep my eyes downcast as he continued to look at the mark, my ears going slightly red from the contact.

“The question is, do you feel any different?” Solas asked, finally letting go of my hand and I was able to exhale a small breath that I was keeping.

“Uhm… I don’t know…” I replied softly. I closed my eyes for a moment to let myself ‘feel’ around me, and as I opened them again I almost fell backwards in surprise. Solas caught me in time, and I clutched onto his tunic to support myself.

“Is all well? That was quite a sudden reaction…” Solas murmured in my ear and I shook my head softly. I let go and let myself stand up straight again.

“I… I can feel your magic! It was sudden, I never felt it before, but its right there, where you’re standing!” I exclaimed, a smile breaking out on my face. “It feels almost like when I cast fireball, but nothing’s happening, the magic is just floating around you, and I can almost _see_ it!”

It’s true; When I looked to Solas, it almost looked like there were dust particles floating all around him, but if I let my mind feel towards them, it felt just like that same energy from when I would cast my spells. Even as I looked around the small clearing, the world around me almost seemed brighter, too. It felt like I could feel the life around me, and it was like a constant buzzing in the back of my head. A small smile was on his face once I let myself calm down.

“Congratulations is in order, then. You are competent enough for me to teach you, so now the work begins. Every afternoon unless otherwise stated when you fisish your midday meal, seek me out here – and don’t forget your staff – and I will teach you what I believe will be helpful for you to know.” Solas explained and I nodded at his words, the smile ever-present on my face. _Take that, egg-boy! I can do magic!_ I almost had the urge to stick my tongue at him in a taunting manner, but I refrained, with a small smirk replacing the smile on my face, but I soon let the smile return to my face in case he noticed.

“Alright, that’s awesome. Thanks, I guess, for helping me even though I’m a stubborn fool of a mage.” I chuckled softly as I still kept looking at the world around me with a new sense of wonder. _If only in-game a mage character could see Thedas like this! It’s all… sparkly and shit, and I feel like I’m walking on a cloud! Maybe then I’d play as a mage more often than a rogue – its like my life completely changed in front of me, honestly for the second time in less than two weeks!_

At my words Solas just lightly chuckled – _I see why Varric calls him Chuckles now –_ and he picks his staff off the ground and starts his way back towards Haven as I follow behind him. I look up to the sky, and I was startled to see that it was starting to get dark out. _How long did I spend inside my head today? It honestly only felt like a few minutes!_

“Jeez, Solas. How long was I sitting there for, exactly? It only felt like a couple minutes to me, but it was early afternoon when we started and now its almost dark out!” I exclaimed, walking in step with the elven apostate.

He gave me a small smile. “Quite a while, I stated. A few hours, perhaps. I do never really keep track of time, I apologize. It worked, though, and now it will be easier for you to master these arcane arts.”

I mused over his words, nodding silently, as we soon came into view of the torch-light surrounding Haven and its outer walls. I stopped in my tracks suddenly, as Solas looked back with a small look of concern.

“Do you have any gloves on you?” I asked softly, looking down at my glowing hand. “It wasn’t this green when I left, and I talked it over with Josephine this morning, and we both think it best for this to stay a little secret for now – until we can explain it, at least.”

Solas nodded at my words, and rummaged through a small pack at his side, pulling out a worn pair of leather gloves and handed them to me. With a silent thanks, I pulled them on and stretched my fingers slightly. _Good, they’re nice and easy to move my hands around, and thick enough to conceal the freaky green glow._

We started our walk again towards Haven, me being more comfortable about my whole situation with the stupid green mark of death. There was no need to talk, and if I was being honest I had _no_ idea what to say around the elf beside me, so we just kept a silent pace until a figure came from my blind side and tackled me into a hug that nearly forced me to the ground.

“KANDICE! You’re alive! Thank the lord, I was getting worried about you!” Margaret’s blue eyes glimmered as she spoke, still holding onto me in a friendly embrace. “Emily told us you woke up earlier this morning, but you’ve been gone all day, so I was getting worried my friend!”

“Okay, first: Never do that again.” I laughed, detaching myself from Margaret’s grip. “I am not the most graceful, and I would not like to end up with a concussion on my first day awake, thank you very much. Second: Yup, its me. I’m alive and all that. I was just training my magic with the help of our resident apostate Solas, here. I guess we just lost track of time.” I motioned to the elf beside me who gave an awkward wave to the woman in front of us.

“Oh, cool! Can you like make giant lightning storms or blizzards or anything yet?” Margaret asked, with fascination clear in her eyes.

“No, that is much too complex for a beginner mage such as your friend here.” Solas stated with a small cough. “I was simply instructing about some theoretical views of practicing mage-craft.”

“Ah, well. You’ll get there someday, buddy.” Margaret replied with a smile, suddenly looping arms with me and pulling me towards Haven’s gate. “Well, hate to cut your time short elfie but I’ve gotta hang with my bestie now; so byee~”

I laughed as I was pulled away from Solas, who was still just standing in the same spot we were just moments before when I looked over my shoulder, and he had a dumfounded look all over his face.

“Jeez, Margaret. Way to pull the plug on my fun.” I said sarcastically, as she continued to pull me along, to where we were going I had no idea.

“Oh, boo hoo. You’ve seen him for what? The past three hours? I haven’t seen you in a week! A _week_ , Kandice! That’s like going months without… I don’t know, drugs! I’m like going through withdrawal here, man!” Margaret spluttered, and I laughed at her horrible comparison.

“Thanks for comparing me to addictive drugs, Margaret. I con totally feel the love.” I drawled, and we just laughed. _Oh, how I’ve missed this! It truly feels like home, now, bantering with a close friend._ Soon I caught the outline of what I assumed to be the tavern, as I could hear laughter and soft music from our vantage point on the path. Margaret kept leading me in that direction, and suddenly I was met by another warm hug as I entered the candle-lit establishment.

“Don’t you _ever_ do that again, okay?” Connor said somberly as he pulled back, a few tears pooling in his grey eyes. “You had us worried, you asshat! When Emily woke up we thought you’d be right after her, but when you weren’t we thought the worst.”

A sad smile crossed my face. “I’ll try, okay? I’m just glad you were worried about me. I’m happy I can see you guys again, too.”

“Hey, if you’re done with the sappy reunion – the beer’s getting warm!” A boisterous voice boomed from the front bar, and I spotted none-other than my little sister with a mug of what I assumed to be her warm beer in front of her. A scowl crossed my face as I walked through the crowd to her.

“And what do you think you’re drinking missy?” I demanded, looking down on her smirking face.

“Thedas has free beer when you basically save the world, bitches!" Emily whooped with a huge grin, taking another swig from the tankard in front of her. 

“Ugh.” I muttered, taking a seat beside her at the bar. “If you’re gonna drink that piss water, its fine with me – but don’t complain when you get all loopy-drunk and have to deal with the consequences.” Margaret and Connor followed my lead, Margaret sitting on my other side an Connor sitting on Emily’s left. Suddenly there was movement on the other side of the bar table and soon there was a hot bowl of what looked like stew placed in front of me. I opened my mouth, taking in the wonderful scent, and looked to the woman smiling down on us.

“Oh, wow, thank you ma’am, but you see, I don’t have any money and – ” I started, wildly looking between my friends who all held smirks on their faces as bowls were placed in front on them as well.

“Silly Kandice! It’s on the house! Flissa here’s been kind to us, especially as Josephine’s request, and being a holy figure does have its perks.” Emily winked at me and gave a thanks to the woman – Flissa – as she headed back to serving food and drink to the other patrons at the tavern. I shook my head at Emily’s antics.

“Don’t let the power get to your head. This is only the beginning.” I muttered in her ear, careful about my words, and a small laugh escaped her lips.

“Live for tonight, my lovely sister! Tomorrow we can save the world!” Emily laughed again, and I’m glad many people weren’t paying us much attention. I once again shook my head at her antics and began to dig in to the lovely stew. I definitely couldn’t recognize the meat, but it tasted slightly like steak, and there was definitely potatoes and carrots mixed in – at least the Thedas version of the vegetables. As I took that first bite, I barely held back my moan of pleasure at the taste – I completely forgot this was my first time in the past week that I had had a proper meal. I quickly ravaged the steaming bowl, and I soon had a disappointed look on my face as I took the final bite.

“Someone here was hungry!” Connor laughed, taking a swig of his own mug – I hadn’t noticed it before – and I gave him a pouty look as he laughed again.

“Oh, shut up – its been like a week since I ate, so its valid that I was hungry!” I defended myself, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Flissa carrying another bowl in my direction, and soon it replaced the empty one in front of me. “You are a saint! Thank you very much!”

The woman in question blushed lightly and gave a small bow. “You are too kind, my lady, it is simply my job. I am glad you enjoyed the food, though. You can just let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.”

“Don’t be modest, my dear! You are amazing at what you do, from what I’ve seen.” I said, giving the woman a smile. “And Kandice is fine – I’m not really deserving of such formalities, I am a simple woman.” Flissa nodded and returned to her duties, and we continued to banter among ourselves, no one really bothering us as we talked. It was a good night, Emily and Connor continued to get drunk as me and Margaret stuck to the water Flissa provided us with, and when I was tired, I grabbed my silly sister and pulled her from her seat.

“Time for bed, I believe, my little nerd.” I calmly said, looping arms with her to steady her feet. Margaret seemed to get the same idea and grabbed Connor as I had done. “Now, where’s her cabin, or the place she has a bed set up?”

“Cassandra and Cullen had one set up for all of us – with four beds and everything – but you were kept in your own cabin while the healers kept an eye on you, but there was a bed set up for you when you got better. It’s just beside yours, if I remember correctly.” Margaret explained as we left the warm feeling of the tavern, into the chill air of Haven.

“That makes sense, I guess. Probably want to keep us together since they know we’re friends and such.” I mused, keeping hold of a giggly Emily. We kept a slow walk to make sure the drunks didn’t stumble and hurt themselves, and we soon found ourselves in front of the wooden door.

Inside, I silent used my magic to light the few candles I could sense around the room, and a small gasp escaped Margaret lips as I did so. I just smirked, and set Emily down on one bed, pulling off her stiff leather jacket and her leather pants, tucking her in to the warm blankets, muttering and giggling to herself as I did so. I turned around to see that Margaret had done the same with Connor, and within seconds both of them were fast asleep. I smiled in Margaret’s direction.

“So, that’s that.” Margaret yawned stiffly, stretching her arms above her head. “You can sleep here, now, if you want, but I don’t think they’ll fight you if you sleep in the other cabin for one more night.”

I shook my head at her words. “Nah, I’ll stay here. Its been too long, and I don’t want to leave you guys again.” Margaret gave me a tight hug as I finished, and I pat her back as I yawned, too. She giggled at me, turning around to get herself ready for bed. I took the only unoccupied bed and pulled off my own jacket and pants and settled into the soft bed. “Goodnight.”

At my soft words, I waved my hand and all the candles went out, leaving us in the darkness. I sighed contently, and soon I was washed away into the world of dreams.


	10. Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I"M BACK! I"M NOT DEAD!
> 
> Whoo, school's finally back in, and we just had a festival in town so work was really hectic for the week, so I'm sorry that this chapter is being published later than planned... don't worry, though! I still plan to keep this story going, no matter what hardships I face!
> 
> And speaking of hardships, this chapter was a bitch to write, surprisingly. I hope you all enjoy it, though.
> 
> To let you all know, I've made a tumblr - its mostly dragon age and writing things, so I'll post there anytime this book is updated. You can find it under the username missus-cupcake. (or you can simply follow this link, if you prefer: https://missus-cupcake.tumblr.com/ ) 
> 
> Something I noticed while writing - I forgot to describe what everyone looks like, so it fit in here so now at least you get a vague idea of what they all look like lol!
> 
> Again, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and feel free to leave any comments or critiques you have. (And sorry for the long note, too~)

I woke up peacefully the next morning, stretching my arms above my head and grunting a little from the strain in my shoulders. I sighed lightly, blinking my eyes to rid them of the sleep and get them used to the early morning light. From the dim rays of sunlight, I could see that I was the first awake. Sitting up slowly and giving a soft yawn, I got the chance to look around the cabin we were in.

Four single beds (duh, four people!) with two along the back wall and one on the right and the other on the left, facing each other. There was a small nightstand and a dresser for each of us, with a small chest at the foot of each bed, and there were two large bookshelves against the front wall just on the other side of the door, with a coat hanger sitting beside them. I was currently sitting in the bed closest to the door, with Connor just opposite me, Margaret closest to me and Emily just beside her. I gave another small sigh and rubbed my eyes lightly. Groaning, I forced myself to get up and grab my clothes off the floor and get dressed for the day.

They were different than the clothes I found on the way to Haven, but I found that they fit me much nicer. A simple linen shirt with a flexible muted green leather jacket was much more comfortable than the stiff brown thing I’d found on that corpse. And the pants seemed to be made of the Thedas equivalent of cotton and the boots were nice and warm leather lined with fur. I also remembered to pull my gloves – cause y’know, can’t let anyone know I could save their world or some shit with my glowing hand squiggles. Despite my still-tired state, I managed to get up and get dressed quietly as to try and not wake the others. I tiptoed to the door and opened it slowly, hoping that it wouldn’t squeak, and slipped into the cold morning air. I shivered at the change in temperature, but I shook it off and headed in the direction that the cabin I woke up in would be.

Where Emily and the others were still asleep was higher up on the hill than the one I woke up in, so I had to go downhill a bit to reach my destination. The only people that seemed to be up were soldiers and Chantry sister, along with the few refugees here and there. Other than that, the dirt paths were empty, and I didn’t have to weave through people to find the wooden house. I’m pretty sure it’s the same cabin, but I wasn’t sure, so I knocked lightly on the door – waiting for an answer in case they gave it to someone else. There was no reply, so I opened the door and stepped inside.

I looked around, and it seemed to be the same room I was looking for. A simple single bed along the back wall with a dresser and some miscellaneous house furniture strewn about the room. Standing in the middle of the room, I did a 180 and saw that my staff was leaning just beside the door and the coat rack.

“Aha, there you are.” I murmured, grabbing the staff and strapping it to my back. “Won’t lose you again this time.” I did a quick look around the room again and spotted a pile of clothes on the dresser that I never noticed yesterday. Scrunching up my nose in confusion, I walked towards the stand and rummaged through the pile. It was the clothes I wore up to the temple – they were badly scratched up and torn and scorched from fighting demons, but someone had tried to the best of their abilities to patch them up.

It didn’t work too well. I don’t think a jacket with holes in it would be very practical to wear in this constant winter-like weather. That didn’t matter, though. I rummaged through the front pocket, hoping I would fine _it_ there.

“Gotcha.” I muttered, pulling out a small silk bag from the torn fabric. I know I told Margaret and Connor to leave everything from home behind, but I _couldn’t_ leave this in a pile to be burned. I opened the small bag and pulled out a simple chain with a simple silver band hanging from the base. Unclasping it, I put the necklace on and hid it under my shirt, and I shivered at the cold, metallic touch. I put the silk bag into a new pocket and refolded the shirt and placed it back on the dresser. I sighed and fingered the ring, wondering if I should just leave it or throw it away.

It has a… special… meaning to me, but a sad on at that, too. I shook my head and, against my better judgement, left the ring on and left the comfort of the cabin, making my way back up the hill to see if any of my nerds are awake yet. It was getting lighter out, but the sky still glowed eerily with the ever-present swirling of the Breach, stable or not. More people seemed to be up and about now, as the idle chatter was prominent among Haven’s people as I continued to walk, minding my own business. I smiled, but it was soon replaced by a frown – their lives used to be simple, and they’re trying to regain some normalcy in their lives after the whole Breach shebang, but knowing what I know, its hard to stay happy and motivated…

I sighed again, and I found I was soon outside our cabin, so I opened the door quietly, and quickly entered the cozy room. I rubbed the small tears that automatically came to my eyes from the temperature change, and I didn’t notice the person staring at me until I looked back up and jumped in surprise.

“Jeez, Margaret, stop being so quiet and stealthy-like! It’s creepy!” I whispered-shouted and all she did was give a quiet snort.

“Not my fault, Kandice!” she laughed, and I had to shush her. “Where have you been, by the way? Up at the crack of dawn, dressed, and sneaking into your room is quite suspicious young lady!”

“First off, I’m older than you, ya nerd.” I sneered at Margaret, as she shook her head in mock shame. “And second, I was just returning to my cabin from yesterday to see if I could find my staff, and lo-and-behold, there it was!” I motioned to the magic-stick on my back, and she nodded in understanding.

“I guess that make sense.” Margaret agreed. She lifted herself off her bed, already dressed – she must have done so before I got back – and she headed towards a small vanity that I hadn’t noticed this morning. I followed her with curiosity – its been days since I’ve seen my own reflection, and I wonder if I still look like ‘me’.

Margaret sat down on the small stool and started to brush her long blonde hair, and I looked at myself in the mirror. I still had my same shoulder length brown hair, still same light brown eyes, and still round face with faded acne scars dotted on my cheeks and my nose. Light complexion, but not as light as Margaret, the poor dear, and my shoulders fell at realizing everything about me was the same.

_Jeez, I wish I could at least look a bit better than I do… can’t believe I’m in Thedas and I look like an absolute moron._

I wasn’t the most athletic person, I admit to having a bit of a lazy streak, and I just never kept up with as much physical fitness as I should have when I was young and my body was more flexible. Now I had, and still have, a small stomach bump and my thighs still touch, and in all honestly my boobs were too big for my body in my opinion, but these guys kept me around, so I guess I’m not a total travesty.

Margaret and Emily were much better looking than I was. Margaret had a beautiful slim figure, and I swear she could be mistaken for an elf when her hair covered her ears. Lovely blue eyes and straight blonde hair, with freckles dotting across her nose and cheeks. Emily was still slim, but not as much as Maggie, and she had a darker complexion than me – but a bit of family resemblance was still there. Dark brown hair that reached just below her ears, and dark brown eyes that seemed black in the dark. Her skin was almost flawless from years of skincare routines, and I was very jealous of that.

Connor was in the same boat as I was, but because he was a guy, most social standards didn’t conform to him – not like he would care if they did, though. Short brown hair that got curly when it got too long, and greenish-grey eyes that sparkled when he smiled, showing off his dimples and his cheek. We both were anime nerds who liked pizza and playing video games for hours on end in high school, so he had the same physique as me (minus the boobs, duh). His skin was darker than Margaret’s, but lighter than mine, and his cheeks always seemed to have a rosy dusting to them.

I snapped out of my thoughts as Margaret tapped my arm lightly with the hairbrush, and I silently accepted the item and began to brush through the knotted mess I called hair. After who-knows how long of not being brushed, it felt great to pull out the knots and finally be able to run my fingers through my hair without them being caught. I looked in the dull mirror, seeing that even though it probably still needed to be washed, my hair had regained its natural wave and bounce to it, and I smiled lightly.

I heard a groan from somewhere behind me, and I turned around to see that Margaret had (silently) stood up and gone and shook Connor to wake him up. I muffled a small laugh at the sight.

“Get off…” Connor muttered, rolling over and pressing his face into his pillow. Margaret was determined, though, and pulled the covers off him and the momentum made him fall to the ground with a soft bang. At the sudden noise, Emily jolted upright in her bed and looked around wildly for the source.

“What… what’s going on? Who’s hurt? Whu…?” Emily mumbled, and after seeing the strange event going on, she rubbed her eyes and sighed. “This is _not_ how I wanted to start my day…”

“Gooood _morning!”_ Margaret exclaimed, jumping onto Emily’s bed and wrapping her up into a quick side-hug, as Emily stared straight ahead, startled.

“oh ya, sure is.” Emily said in the most monotone voice I’d ever heard, blinking tiredly at the blonde. Again, I had to stifle a small laugh at her.

“Hey, bud. Ready to face the day?” I asked with a small smile, and Emily turned and gave me a small glare.

“yup.” She answered shortly, sighing again and pulling herself from under the covers. Margaret moved to let her get up and moved back around to see Connor still laying on the floor from where he fell. Margaret prodded him with her foot, and he grumbled at the action.

“I’m awake, dammit.” Connor muttered, sitting up and leaning against his bed. “And I don’t think I want to know _why_ I’m not wearing any pants.” At his words I couldn’t help but let out a loud laugh, and I had to put a hand over my mouth to stop the sounds.

“ _Jesus,_ Connor! I took them off your sorry ass when we dragged you home, drunk!” Margaret exclaimed, kicking him in the side – he winced at the action. I was still containing my laughter, and I looked over to see that Emily was just shaking her head, pulling on her clothes and getting ready for the day.

“Ugh, you guys are such nerds. Go train, get some food, don’t die. I don’t care what order, just do those three simple things. I gotta go face the Trinity…” Emily mumbled, rubbing her eyes again as she stood up and walked towards where I stood in the middle of the room. “C’mon, bud. Let’s get this over with.”

I smiled lightly at my sister, looped arms with her – my left arm through her right – and I waved goodbye to the other nerds as Connor began to get dressed and Margaret continued to glower at him. We exited the cabin and made our way up the hill towards the Chantry.

I noticed a distinct different of walking through Haven, now that Emily was by my side. People would stop, stare, and whisper as we walked along, and I resisted the urge to sigh and roll my eyes. I _knew_ that Emily was ‘the answer to all their prayers’, but it still bothered me knowing that everyone was watching her every move for any mistakes or bumps in the road.

The trek up to the Chantry didn’t take long, and it was much nicer inside the wooden walls than outside in the chilly air. It still startled me every time I went outside. We passed by a few Chantry sisters, some who simple stared and other who bowed their heads slightly as they continued to do whatever work they were doing. Continuing down the hall, we made it to the war room and I helped Emily push over the giant wooden doors.

Inside the room, everyone sort of stopped to stare at the new entries. I didn’t know whether is would be more awkward to give a small wave or do nothing.

I decided to do nothing.

“Welcome, my dearest sister, to Haven’s war room.” Emily brightly introduced, and I smiled at her enthusiasm. “You’ve met Cassandra and Josephine, right?”

“Yeah, and I met your other advisors too, though we’ve not talked at length. Cullen, and Leliana, right?” I nodded towards her, and I tried to make my face match my words – it was going to be so hard to feign ignorance, especially with the Nightingale present.

“Yes, that would be right, my lady.” Josephine smiled, holding that ever-present ‘clipboard’ in her hands. I honestly didn’t know if there was a Thedas version for the word, so clipboard would suit for now. “Commander Cullen of the Inquisition’s troupes, and Sister Leliana here…”

“My job here requires a degree of –” Leliana began but was cut of by Cassandra.

“She is our spymaster.” The Seeker stated, and Leliana winced slightly from the brute comment.

“Tactfully put, Lady Pentaghast.” Leliana sneered slightly – in jest, I hope – and Cassandra made one of her famous ‘disgusted noises’. I almost smiled at the interaction.

“So, from what the Herald tells us, you are her sister, correct?” Cassandra asks, trying to shrug off the previous conversation.

“Yeah, I told you that when we first met, like what? A week ago? Back then she was wanted for murder.” I replied, my eyes darkening slightly, and Emily placed a hand on my arm to try and calm me down. Cassandra seemed to scowl at my words.

“Well, we now know most of the story!” Josephine interjected – ever the diplomat – trying to keep tempers calm. “I’m glad you could join us this morning, Lady Kandice. I believe your input would be quite worthwhile in these strange times.”

“Thanks for having me – I hope that I can help.” I said, letting my shoulders drop from the tension they were holding. “And like I said, Josephine, its just Kandice – you don’t need to address me so formally.”

“Just Kandice?” I heard Leliana’s voice from my right. I squinted my eyes, turning in her direction.

“Just Leliana?” I retorted back, crossing my arms. Everyone in the room visibly stiffened, and I swear you could hear a pin hit the ground if you dropped one. No one moved or said anything until Leliana let out a small chuckle.

“You certainly do not enjoy being asked questions, much like your friends. I do not know whether to find it intriguing or endangering.” Leliana hummed, and I swear everyone let out a small sigh of relief.

“On to other topics,” Cullen coughed, drawing our attention to him, “I’m glad to see you up and about. It gave the Herald her quite a worry. Oh, and don’t worry – Josephine has informed us all of her plan to keep your ‘identity’ a secret until we know more.”

I scowled slightly but tried to put a neutral look back on my face. “Its good to be up, Commander.”

“Yes, now that the Herald can think freely with you being recovered, we can get on with more pressing matters.” Josephine began. “The other day we received word from the Hinterlands about a Chantry cleric by the name of Mother Giselle who wishes to speak to Emily. With the Chantry’s denouncement of the Inquisition, she could have information that is invaluable.”

“Okay, that sounds like a good idea.” Emily mused, and I nodded at Josephine’s words.

“Yes, we need to garner support anywhere we can. Even if the Breach is stable for now, Solas believes that with more power, a second attempt should be able to seal the Breach for sure.” Leliana added.

“We could approach the rebel mages of Redcliff or the Templar order – either faction would surely bring enough power to aid our cause – but like Leliana mentioned briefly, we don’t have any support, and must find some before either group will talk to us.” Cullen explained, and I nodded.

“Okay – when do we leave?” I asked, and all eyes turned to me. “What? You expect to ship my little sister to somewhere and leave me behind? Nu-uh, don’t think so.” Emily to flash me a small smile of gratitude at my words.

“If you insist, I do not believe any one would try and stop you. Would your two other friends be joining you?” Josephine asked, and I shook my head.

“Only if they wanted to, I wouldn’t force them. Who else would be joining us, though?” I replied to Josephine.

“I would, if only to serve as your guide and protector.” Cassandra piped up. “I believe that Varric and Solas would also prove invaluable if they as well choose to come.”

“But that still doesn’t answer my question – when would we set off?” I asked again, my brows slightly furrowing in frustration.

“I would say in three days time would be suitable.” Cullen mused, scratching his chin slightly in thought. “That would be enough time to gather all the supplies required to make the journey.”

“Well, alright then.” Emily clapped, leaning back to crack her shoulders slightly from standing up so long. “I guess I need to go round up some people. I’ll see you in the training area after lunch, right Cassandra?”

“Uh, yes, Herald.” Cassandra replied, startled as Emily suddenly left the war room, only giving me a small smile and a quick wave as I saw her form disappear behind the doors.

“Well.” I said awkwardly, not knowing what to do now that Emily was gone. “I should, uh, get going then. Do I come back tomorrow, or…?”

“If you wish. There may be more or less to talk through, but as I said you are always welcome.” Josephine answered with a smile. I nodded my head, and kind of just… backed out of the room until the door closed behind me.

“Jesus, that was more stressful than it needed to be…” I muttered, walking through the hall and leaving the warm walls of the Chantry. Now, I needed food, and to meet up with a certain apostate hobo…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm kind of having a dilemma here - do I describe things too much, or too little? This is my longest work yet, and I really don't know much about what you guys like specifically, so what should I do?
> 
> Try to tone it back? Is it not descriptive enough? Or is it fine just the way it is?
> 
> Please let me know, guys. I really want you all to enjoy this book!
> 
> Have a good day~


	11. Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaack~ I know, I know, it's been a while - I think chapters will mostly be one every two weeks from here on out, but I'll try my best to give you all new content as soon as possible. 
> 
> We start some plot in this chapter - slowly but surely - and I believe we'll be on our way to the Hinterlands within the next chapter or two, so keep a look out! I plan for things to pick up the pace a bit - I really kinda wanted to get a lot of things established before trying to fit the story into my story (if that makes sense lol!) but I hope you'll stick around for what i have planned!
> 
> As always, I hope you all enjoy~

I was met with a chilly blast of air as I left the Chantry, shivering at the sudden coolness.

“God, I’ll never get used to this constant cold…” I muttered, closing the large doors behind me and wrapping my arms around my waist to try and keep some heat _inside_ my body. Food was the first thing on my list, so I made my way down towards the tavern, hoping to find something for breakfast before it got too late.

 _I should probably learn how to tell time here… it’s no use knowing how to read a clock when there aren’t any in Thedas, and the entire day just seems to pass by before I even realize, and boom, its dark outside._ I mused, thinking and planning as I walked though the small throng of villagers, though they paid no mind to me on my own. _So, Hinterlands is our first stop. Will everything play out just like in the game, or do we need to go to Val Royeaux as soon as we talk to Mother Giselle? And do I_ have _to collect the shards? Are they important? Should_ all _the side quests be done and completed? Ugh, I hate not knowing!_

I sighed, and soon found myself in front of the tavern. I opened the door and was met with a wonderful smell. Smiling, I walked up to the counter where Flissa was busy wiping down the surface.

“Good morning, dear Flissa! Is that fresh bread that I can smell?” I asked with a grin, and Flissa looked up from her task and gave me a smile.

“Yes, it is, Lady Kandice. Would you care for some? Your friends were here earlier, and I was surprised you were not with them.” Flissa answered, leaning down behind the counter and pulling what looked like a very-fresh loaf up on the counter.

“Yes, please! It smells heavenly!” I said, sitting down on an empty stool as Flissa cut me a piece and placed the rest of the loaf back where she brought it from, and handed it to me with a smile.

“Is there anything else I can get for you, my lady?” The woman asked, and I shook my head, so she took her rag up again and went to wash off some tables, I assume. I sat there, happily munching on the delicious bread (hey, don’t make fun of me – I enjoy the simple things in life like good bread, sheesh) and I looked around the tavern to see I was basically the only person inside except for what looked like two drunk guys passed out in one corner.  Meh, whatever keeps ya going, boys.

I finished my meagre breakfast quickly, still not knowing the time, so I waved to Flissa goodbye and started out past the gates, towards the training area. Maybe Solas would be early? Who knows, but better to be safe than sorry, yeah?

As I walked closer, it was easy to hear the sound of metal swords clashing on metal swords and armor. Clanging and banging of practice swings and blunt hits rang out through the cleared area. Not knowing what to, I simply stood at the edge of the area, watching the soldiers train to give their lives to the Inquisition.

 _No, don’t think like that, you idiot! Not all of them will die, and you_ will _try your hardest to limit the casualties!_ I shook my head at the thoughts racing through my mind, so caught up that I never noticed the creeping figure to my right until a pair of hands landed on my shoulders, making me jump forwards in fear and turn around to face my adversary in rage.

“What the fuck – MARGARET LOUISE! Stop being such an _asshole_!” I yelled, swiping at her shit-eating grin – but she dodged out of the way, laughing all the time.

“My _god_ you are so easy to sneak up on!” Margaret exclaimed, doubling over from the exertion of laughing at _me_. I scowled at her, crossing my arms and knitting my eyebrows.

“So not cool, dude.”

“Bah, whatever!” Margaret brushed me off and paced in place. Suddenly, as if an idea came to her, she smiled real big and gave some funny look. I gave one right back at her. “Hey, _Kandice_ , wanna practice with me?? The scout who’s usually been training me was suddenly pulled into another thing she had to do and couldn’t tell me until this morning before she left, so I’ve got nothing to do for the _entire_ day!”

“So, you want to spar with _me_ , the one who can barely walk in a straight line, who’s never done any kind of combat training, and has the literal athleticism of an elephant? Sure, if I like the sound of _dying_!” I exclaimed, and all Margaret did was give me her famous ‘puppy-dog eyes’. I rolled my eyes and sighed, and Margaret jumped up and around me with victory in her eyes.

“Oh my goodness thank you so much!! Here, take these!” Margaret gushed, pulling a pair of daggers from behind her and handing them to me, then retrieving _another_ pair from her back and rolling them in her hands. I raised my eyebrow and laughed at her.

“You were all prepared for me to say yes, didn’t you? What a nerd, oh my god.” I chuckled, copying what Margaret was doing. The daggers she gave were quite plain – probably practicing daggers – but they did have a good weight to them, I assume. They were like longer, sharper kitchen knives.

I didn’t like it.

Margaret lead me towards an unoccupied spot, me following obediently behind, and she looked around to make sure nobody was in her ‘area-of-attack’ – so we could practice without maiming a soldier, I assume. I sighed, knowing there was no way to get out of this predicament now.

“You should take that off,” Margaret motioned to the staff on my back, “You don’t want it getting in the way, yeah? Plus, when you fall on your ass you won’t have to worry about a broken magic stick.”

“Oh ho ho, you sneaky bugger. Don’t let Emily catch you using language like that,” I chuckled, following her guide and setting my staff just against a training dummy off to the side. Margaret shrugged her shoulders, not caring in the moment. She… twirled?... her daggers in her hands, jumping up and down in anticipation, and looked to me with a big smile on her features.

“Okay, first things first. These knives are blunt, but if you _do_ stab or slice me, it’ll still hurt so _be careful,_ please. I’m not that good, either, so this’ll be mostly just for fun – but remember, if you wanna actually learn to use daggers you gotta be _fast,_ capiche?” Margaret explained, looking at me with a sparkle in her eyes. I rolled mine at her, twirling my daggers in my hands, copying her actions from before. She raised her eyes at me. “It took me like two days to twirl mine like that. _How did you do that simply from watching me?!?”_

“Oh?” I raised my eyebrows, looking down to the daggers in my hands. “I honestly don’t know… magic, maybe? Or that I’m just good at copying simple things? I don’t know, man. I know you’ll be better at putting me on my ass, that’s for sure.”

Margaret chuckled at my words. “Okay, that’s fair. And look who’s using that language now? Ya hypocrite.” I stuck my tongue out at her in jest. “Ugh, stop getting me distracted! Let us begin!” She brandished her daggers, lowering her body and getting in some sort of battle stance. I looked at her in confusion.

“Do I follow you, or…?” I asked, and she nodded her head with a smile. With a shuddered breath, I lowered my body just like hers, reaching one arm in front with the dagger pointing outwards and my other arm – crossing underneath the other – with the dagger pointed towards my back.

“Okay, good! You’ve got a basic position down!” Margaret clapped, relaxing into a neutral stance, twirling her daggers again. I relaxed as well, and let out a small sigh, already feeling a pulling in my shoulders from having to tense my body like that. “Now, you gotta hold those daggers properly – should’a shown you that first, sorry bud – but if you hold them wrong you could like bust your wrist or do more damage to yourself than your enemy.”

Walking up to me, Margaret placed one of her daggers away and showed me how she was holding the other in your hand. “You don’t want to grip it in a fist, like don’t keep your wrist locked – you would have no motion if you did – you want to hold it tightly, but keep your wrists relaxed enough that you can use the entire range that you joints will allow you. Try that.”

I followed her words, trying to keep my wrists relaxed but still keep a strong grip – it was harder than it sounded, honestly. I kept the daggers in my hands, rotating my wrists in a circle to see if it worked.

“Aha! Did I do that right?!?” I exclaimed, looking to Margaret for reassurance.

“Yeah, that looked right! You can rotate your wrists without them locking, yeah? That’s the basic principle of fighting with daggers. Also, don’t stab. That’s not gonna be good for you in a battle; you’ll use more energy and tire faster. Long, slashing motions are the way to go.” Margaret congratulated, pulling out her other dagger and walking back to her spot opposite me. “Okay, so now that you can hold the daggers and know a beginning stance, d’you wanna try and spar??”

I sucked in a breath, looking at her with skeptical eyes. “I don’t know, man. You said you gotta be fast to use daggers – well, look at me, I am _not_ fast.” I gestured to myself at my words, and she shook her head at me. “I mean, I can try. Can’t promise any good results, though.”

“Well, if you’ll try, that’s all that matters!” Margaret beamed, once again getting into her ‘starting position’ as she called it, and I followed her lead. I let out a shaky breath as I waited for her to start.

Without missing a beat, Margaret lunged for me with lightning speed, her right dagger outstretched and ready to strike. I dodged out the way quickly to my right, avoiding her knife by an inch. I circled around just in time to see her run at me again, and this time I panicked and brought my arms up, crossing my daggers and using them to deflect her blow. I pushed outward with my arms and pushed Margaret back, and this time I lunged at her with my right dagger to try and land a hit. She danced out of the way with ease, and I almost lost my balance from over-estimating how far to run.

I turned back to face her as quick as I could, and we parried and danced back and forth for a few moments, neither of us landing any blows so far. She kept attacking the most, though. I mostly dodged for defended against her flashing blades. One step, slash. Two steps, dodge. Move to the right, parry a blow. Turn just in time to avoid being stabbed. I was too slow at one point, though, because after dodging an attack I didn’t turn back towards Margaret in time, so she was able to come at me quickly and tap my back on the left side with her dagger before I even had a chance to defend the hit.

“Right in the kidney. Dead in minutes from blood loss, or you’ll go crazy from the pain. Or maybe you’ll survive to live in a world without transplant technology. Good game, though.” Margaret exclaimed, sheathing her daggers and wiping the little beads of sweat from her brow with practiced grace. I, on the other hand, was hunched over, daggers forgotten on the ground, hands resting on my knees, and trying to catch my breath.

“God, I am _so_ not in shape.” I muttered, taking a deep breath and retrieving the daggers from the ground. I straightened myself out, and walked over to where Margaret stood, watching me. I handed them back to her, and she gave me a bright smile. “Here, I believe these are yours.”

“Well, thank you kindly, my dear, but you should keep this pair of sparring daggers, so you can keep up with some practicing routines; You look like you got some real potential there my dude!” Margaret said, and I humbly accepted the twin blades with their belt sheath, tying it around my waist. “You did do really good, though, for your first time with close combat. At least you don’t have to go this same routine for like four hours like I did my first day with my trainer. Keep practicing – you might not always be able to rely on magic, my dearest dude.”

I snorted at her closing remark as I retrieved my staff from near the training dummy. I looked to the sky – the sun was high, and I wish it were spring or summer so at least its yellow rays would produce _some_ heat – and despite the calming environment, a sickly green glow still shuddered around in the dark clouds near the temple. I sighed once again, knowing that I alone have to bear the weight of everything that I know will sadly come to pass in the near future.

_Or I mean, it could be like in a few months time, honestly… Bioware was always kinda vague on time lines and stuff through the game… maybe, just maybe, I’ll have enough time to come up with a plan…_

I was startled out of my thoughts as I heard someone call my name. Margaret and I both noticed the sound, and we looked towards the blacksmith’s to see Emily waving us over. With a raised eyebrow to the blonde in front of me, she just shrugged her shoulders, so we walked over to where Emily stood near the forges.

“Hey my dudes! Good thing I caught you in time before your magic lesson thingies Kands – Harrit here’s been working on armor for us all, but he’s yet to make anything for you. I think it’s a good idea to get something to protect you when we leave for the Hinter lands or whatever Josephine called them.” Emily explained, and I nodded my head in understanding, but from beside me, Margaret seemed to shake in rage.

“What?? Why didn’t you tell me that you’re leaving??” Margaret burst out, looking to Emily with wide eyes. “Where are you going? Why are you going? Is it safe? Do you really need to go? Oh my god, you could die – ”

“HEY! Stop that!” Emily interrupted, putting a hand on Margaret’s arm gently. “We need to go to these Hinter lands to sort out some political stuff for this Inquisition we’ve got ourselves attached to. I haven’t gotten the chance to tell you cause I just got back from trying to find Connor and Varric in the woods. They’re both coming, along with Kandice and Cassandra – I haven’t asked Solas yet – and I was on my way to come ask you if you wanted to join us.”

Margaret looked at Emily with blank eyes, and me and my sister shared a look of concern.

“Oh.” Was all that Margaret said, looking downcast and shuffling her feet sheepishly. “Sorry for over-reacting Em. I’m just worried, is all. I hate not knowing anything in this world, and you’re like a better little sister than Julia could ever be… I just don’t want any of you guys to get hurt…”

I moved to hug Margaret, and Emily followed my lead until she was enveloped in a bug hug full of love.

“Hey, everything will be fine, Margaret. You’ve got me, and I’ll make sure that nothing bad happens to any of you guys. I promise.” I murmured – I knew if I said anything above a whisper I might break in to tears, these guys were just too good to me. “So, did you wanna come on our adventure? There’ll be demon-slaying action and political crap at its finest.” I managed to get chuckle out of Margaret, and after a few moments we let go and she looked at us with a smile.

“Thanks you guys. Sorry for being so emotional. But yeah, I’ll come with you all – need to have me around so I go chop suey on all those baddies.” Margaret laughed, doing some weird ninja move that made Emily and I burst out into a short laughing fit.

“Oh wow, ya nerd. Way to take a serious conversation into a weird direction.” Emily replied in a joking manner. “But enough sappiness. Kandice – armor. Gotta do that now.”

I’d almost forgot that we were standing just a bit away from the forge, and I was thankful for the rhythmic clanging of hammers that seemed to have blocked our conversation out for the people under the small roof. We walked over together, and Emily introduced me to Harrit – Margaret must have already talked to him and gotten some armor start being crafted.

“Good day, Herald. How may I be of service?” Harrit called out, wiping his gloves off on his pants and walking over to us. Emily smiled, and gestured to me beside her.

“My dear sister needs some simple armor here, Harrit, before we leave for the Hinter lands in three days time. Do you think you’d be able to help?” Emily asked kindly, and Harrit scrunched his face in thought.

“Hrm, three days isn’t a long time to craft new armor, Herald. Especially custom design.” Harrit replied, scratching his chin.

“Well, I only really need a like a simple leather jacket – something that’s a bit more sturdy and thick than the one I have on.” I interjected, looking to the smith. “It doesn’t have to be too complicated or ‘pretty’ – it’ll just have to save my life in a pinch.”

Harrit looked at me and nodded his head. “Alright, I think I may be able to whip something up. A leather jacket, breastplate, bracers and greaves…” Harrit kept mumbling as he walked away, seeming returning to his work. Emily waved goodbye – although he didn’t seem to see – and we turned around and started walking back towards the gates.  

“That was a bunch of fancy words and I understood _none_ of them.” Emily said suddenly, and I chuckled.

“Basically fancy boob, arm, and leg protectors.” I said, looking to Emily with a smirk. She and Margaret both looked at me then burst out laughing.

“Way to put it bluntly like that Kandice.” Margaret snorted, and I smacked her arm lightly in jest. I just shook my head at my two weirdos.

When we got closer to Haven’s gates, I saw a certain elven apostate looking around with his ever-present look of boredom. I scowled, slowing down to try and keep him waiting as long as possible. Emily seemed to notice the change in my demeanor, as she looked around until she saw Solas and connected the two new pieces of information.

“Why do you look so angry around Solas?” Emily asked with a frown. “Oh wait, let me guess – you have the hots for the elf!”

I looked at Emily in shock and smacked her arm lightly. “You shut your mouth in case anyone hears you! You’ve never had the quietest voice!”

“Ha, I knew it! You’re always frowning or looking angry when you’re sexually frustrated.” Emily snickered, and Margaret couldn’t help but laugh lightly. My ears reddened at her remarks, but I still help that scowl.

“No, Emily. It’s just… complicated, is all. I know too much about too many things, and its just, augh, I hate knowing everything.” I replied softly, looking towards my friends who both held looks of concern.

“If there’s something I should know about Solas, you should tell me Kandice.” Emily said with a look of concern, but I shook off her words.

“It’s nothing that I can’t handle.” I told her, but I silently added in my head: _I hope so, at least._

Emily seemed to drop the topic as we continued our slow pace back towards the gates. Solas must have spotted us walking and was heading towards us until we met halfway.

“Good day, Herald, Margaret. Are you sufficiently prepared for today’s lesson, Kandice?” Solas asked, looking to each of us in turn.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I replied jokingly, and Solas seemed to raise an eyebrow in questioning.

“Oh, Solas, before you take off – I’ve got a question for you!” Emily interjected, getting Solas’s attention away from me for a few moments. “We’re heading for the Hinter lands in three days time and I was wondering if you would like to join us.”

“I believe it would be quite valuable to have a skilled mage join you in your endeavors. So yes, I do believe I can join you this time.” Solas answered after a few moments of thinking. “But you do realize it is pronounced the ‘Hinterlands’, as in one whole word?”

Emily seemed to redden at the apostate’s remark. “Well, would you look at that! Looks like me and Margaret gotta blast!” Without for anyone else to reply, Emily pulled Margaret along and both of them ran from Solas and I, back through the gates to Haven. I simply shook my head at her silliness.

“That’s my crazy sister for ya.” I said jokingly, and Solas seemed to nod his head at my words.

After a few moments of just waiting around not knowing what to do, Solas suddenly started a brisk pace – once again – and lead me back to the same clearing from the previous night, through the training area and the woods.

“Please tell me I don’t have to spend several hours sitting on that rock. My butt was _seriously_ numb and hurt like a bitch afterwards.” I leered at the rock at the edge of the clearing, and Solas chuckled at my words.

“Not if you wish, no. Today we may work on more practical forms of magic – since you have brought your staff along today.” Solas smirked, and I rolled my eyes at him, although nodding along to his ideas. “Good. Then I believe a good place to start would be to show me what you already know what to do.”

~

I spent the next few hours going over with Solas how I figured out how to cast simple fire and ice attacks, along with channeling energy through my staff to create weak but effective blasts of magic that were good to use in case I ever ran out of mana. He tried to show how to cast a simple lightning spell, but I never seemed to get the hang of it today. By the time dusk started to roll in, I felt… tired, but it was weird since I barely did any physical activity since this morning.

Solas seemed to notice my fatigue and latched his staff back into its holder. “I believe that is all for tonight, Kandice. You are running low on magic, and it would do you no good to drain yourself when your abilities are still novice and your body is not used to its presence.”

“Yeah, okay. That makes sense.” I nodded, suddenly feeling like my arms and legs were made of lead, and I followed Solas’s actions by putting my staff away as well. Solas looked back with a glimmer of a smile and started walking back through the woods towards Haven. I followed along meekly – I could honestly fall asleep right here, right now.

“You are doing well with your magic these last two days, Kandice.” Solas said suddenly as we walked along. “It is still hard to believe that one such as yourself to grow into their magic so late in adulthood.”

I looked up to Solas skeptically. “… Yeah, I guess so. Thinking about it know, most kids would be well before their teens when discovering their magic for the first time, yeah?. I mean, I'm only twenty-four, but like you said, it seems way to old to just be finding this out now” Solas nodded at my words

“You are correct. It is quite odd to be so much older and simply being such a beginner, as you are."

“Could it be anything to do with the mark on my hand? It seems to be magical, after all.” I asked cautiously, looking to Solas for any hints. My words didn’t seem to have any effect on him.

“Possibly. It is one theory that we cannot exclude yet.” Solas hummed. I wanted to yell at the lying bastard. _Oh don’t seem so nonchalant about it, you egg! It’s your damn creation, after all!_

I hummed in return, and we collapsed into a comfortable silence. I could spot the torchlight of Haven through the trees, and soon we were making our way towards the tavern.

“Did you want to join me for a meal?” I asked Solas, who looked caught up in thought.

He shook his head. “No, thank you. I do not enjoy being around people who could turn into such a rowdy bunch at any moment.” I just laughed at his answer, shaking my head.

“Alright, your loss then. See you tomorrow, Solas.” I waved as he made his way back towards his cabin, and I entered the warm walls of the tavern, taking in the smell of fresh stew and ale all around.

I looked around, trying to see if anyone I knew was inside, and I spotted Varric and Connor at one table, playing what looked like a card game. I smiled and walked over to the two.

“Mind if I take a seat?” I asked, getting their attention. Connor looked up and smiled real big, nodding his head at my question.

“Hey there Kandice! Good to see you!” Connor smiled as I pulled out a chair and sat beside him. Varric, to his left, took a swig of his mug and smiled as well.

“Nice to see you up and about. Connor here’s been talking about your magical endeavors these last few days. Glad to see you’re settling into some sort of routine.” Varric agreed, taking another quick drink of his cup.

“Thanks, Varric. It’s good to be up, actually.” I replied, looking between the two who seemed to be quite focused on their cards. “What’re you guys playing?”

“Some game called Diamondback. I’m not very good.” Connor sneered as Varric revealed his cards and Connor threw his down as the dwarf claimed the pot in the middle. “You’re gonna leave me broke here, Varric!”

All the dwarf seemed to do was laugh at Connor’s misery. “If I remember correctly, all this money was mine and all I did was loan you some so you could learn to play!”

I laughed at their bickering. It was a good stress reliever – seeing friends have fun – and not have to worry about much else. Connor gathered up the cards again, shuffled them, and dealt them out. From behind me, Flissa walked over with a bowl of stew and I took from her with silent thanks.

“Did you want me to deal you in, Kandice?” Connor asked suddenly, and I shook my head.

“Nah, I think I’ll just watch and eat my soup.” Connor shrugged his shoulders and then they begun a new round. For the rest of the night, I only saw Connor win one round – Varric having won the rest.

It was a relaxing night, and when me and Connor made our way back to our cabin to find Emily and Margaret both sound asleep, I was grateful for a warm blanket and decent mattress so I could sleep the night away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I need your help here! I want Varric to give everyone a unique nickname, but I'm horrible at these things! If you have any ideas, feel free to leave them down below - any suggestions or ideas are greatly appreciated!


	12. Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, y'all! More exposition, and card games with Varric (although I did take a bit of artistic freedom with the game, dont shoot me!) and we're finally on our way to the Hinterlands!  
> I want to thank you all for keeping up with this story so far, and I thank each and everyone of you who leave kudos and comments - I always smile when i seem a new notification in my email.  
> And I would also like to thank @ShadowScale for their help in some Varric's nicknames given to my main four.
> 
> Like always, enjoy and have a lovely read~

I slumped into a chair, sighing and resting my head on the table and groaning in protest. It’s been a long two days – but hey, I could now do some minor lightning tricks and my fireballs were larger and stronger now, along with some minor proficiency in daggers – and all I wanted to do was sleep.

But _nooooo._ Emily wanted us to spend our last night in Haven (for how long, we weren’t sure) together doing some ‘bonding’ after being in this new world for almost two weeks now. Right now, I was sitting at some table in the tavern, simply listening to idle conversations around me, and I sighed again.

“You gonna be alright there, champ?” Margaret asked coyly from beside me, and I raise my head to see a fun-loving glimmer in her eyes. I grunt in response, letting my head fall back on to the table with a slight ‘bang’.

“Jeez, Kandice. That’s gotta hurt…” Emily winces, and I lift my head up once again, this time to flash a mischievous grin towards my sister. I sigh for a final time, and straighten myself in the chair, crossing my arms and surveying the tavern around me.

Because it was dark out now, a lot of soldiers and many villagers were chatting and having a drink to spend their night – not really having to worry about any responsibilities for the rest of the night. It wasn’t as rowdy as it could be – I’ve heard some of Varric’s stories of horrible bar fights – and everything seemed to be calm this night. At my table, going around the circle to my right sat Margaret, Varric, Emily, and Connor was on my left side – Connor and Varric engaged in another card game, trying to teach Emily how to play. I didn’t have any interest in trying, and Margaret was just content to watch – and it got more and more interesting the more that Emily didn’t understand.

“So, I _know_ I have to show my two cards, but _when_? Like, do we go clockwise, counter, or just random? Or at the same time? And how do you remember all the combinations so you know that you have a good hand?? There’s just too many things to think of for a simple five-minute game, man!” Emily grumbled, gripping the cards in her left hand angrily, scowling and looking to Varric for answers.

The dwarf simply laughed at her adorable outrage. “You gotta listen, Herald – that’s why we’re teaching you! You won’t know if you’ve got a good hand until you put it down – and even if you’ve got the best combination possible, some other idiot might have one that’s _slightly_ better. You really just gotta do some trial and error.”

I shook my head at their interactions, Varric re-dealing the cards so they could try a round again. Beside me, Margaret was eating her stew contently, enjoying the conversations that didn’t hold much meaning. I elbowed her slightly, unknowingly making her drop her spoon in her soup, and she looked at me with a face of disappointment.

“My spoon…” she pouted, looking to me with her bottom lip jutted out and I laughed at her sad look.

“You should try, Mags. You might be good, you never know.” I suggested, looking to Varric as her peered over his cards at the betting pool.

“Why don’t you, then, if you say it looks fun? Huh?” Margaret prompted, and I shook my head.

“I may be good at lying, but I’ve got a horrible poker face. I can’t lie and not mean it – like, I can’t lie if I don’t really need to.” I explained, and Margaret nodded her head in understanding. As everyone finished their bets, they all laid down their cards. “And I mean, lying is like the base of any card game.”

Connor and Emily both groaned as Varric smugly pulled the pile of money towards himself.

“You got the main idea there, kid.” Varric says, looking at me as he hands the cards to Emily so she could deal them in for a new round. “But it requires _skill_ and _finesse_ to be good too.”

“Like a bard, I guess.” I blurt out, laughing along as Varric realizes what I said, and he starts to chuckle with me as the others look on in confusion.

“A dungeons and dragons class bard? Is that what you mean?” Margaret whispers to me as Varric looks away for a moment. I nod subtly, taking a drink of my water.

Emily, still not understanding what I was going on about, shakes her head in confusion. “How is that funny, though? Don’t bards just sing and tell tales?”

“Oh, kid, you don’t even know half of it.” Varric chuckles again, taking a swig of his mug. “Bards are good singers and performers, yes, but they’re also spies and cold-blooded killers that are very popular in Orlais and their Great Game. Your sister’s joke was just ironic, I guess – killing as a skill you need to hone is pretty hilarious.”

“… Oh. I think I get it.” Everyone laughs as she still furrows her brows in confusion.

“Don’t lose sleep over it, love.” I give her a comforting smile from across the table, and she returns one gratefully, nodding in understanding.

After the momentary distraction, Emily goes back to shuffling the cards and dealing them out, and a new round begins as everyone focuses on their hands.

“Y’know, I’m wondering – since you seem to know bards, have you ever been to Orlais? Because I’ve not seen many within Ferelden politics – other than our resident spymaster, that is, but that doesn’t count because she’s Orlesian.” Varric asks with wonder as he discards and draws two more cards.

I take in a deep breath, and everyone else seems to be looking to me for answers, all holding their breaths. “… Technically, no.”

“‘Technically’? What is that suppose to mean?” Varric probes, looking at me skeptically.

“It’s… a long and sad story…” I answer, taking a drink to avoid being questioned further. Everyone seems to let out their breaths, as Varric sighs.

“I mean, we’ve got the time.” Varric seems to gesture, saying ‘get on with it’ with his arms, and I shake my head.

“Sorry, you must be at least friend level ten to unlock this story.” I say with the straightest face I can, but I crack up and everyone seems to shake their head in disdain.

Varric puts his hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright, I leave it be – for now. But you owe me a story one day, Silver.”

“‘Silver’?” I raise my eyebrows, as he shrugs.

“It’s a nickname, Silver. You ever had one before?” Varric laughs, laying down his cards with the other players following suit. As all the cards are on the table, Connor jumps up and shouts with glee as Varric stares on in shock.

“HA! In your _face_ , dwarf man! _Double aces!_ I _win!_ ” Connor exclaims, and laughs and we all join him for the hilarity of the situation. Varric sighs and shakes his head in defeat.

“Wow, you beat me, good job Ace.” Varric smirks at the new name, gathering up all the cards into one pile.

Connor raises his eyebrows as he sits down again. “I get a nickname too? That’s awesome!”

“I don’t mean to interrupt your fun…” Margaret drawls, getting all our attentions. “But Varric let you win, Connor. He’s got the queen right here, under the table.” To prove her point, Margaret grabs a card that was seeming on Varric lap as he shouts in disdain.

“Hey, how did that get there? I don’t know anything about it at all…” Varric runs off, thinking of excuses, and all Connor does is shake his head.

“Thanks, Varric. So kind to me.” Connor says with mock hurt, placing a hand over his heart sarcastically.

“Anyways…” I laugh at the exchanges in front of me as everyone settles down into a comfortable silence. “How is ‘Silver’ my nickname? Connor’s is obvious, ‘Ace’ for cards and all that, but how do I fit into mine?”

Varric shrugs. “You look like a Silver. Plus, silver staff, and I know that Chuckles likes to talk about magic and stuff, and he’s got like a golden aura and you’re his apprentice basically, so – silver.” I contemplate his answer, and shrug as well.

“Hey, if they get nicknames, can I have one??” Margaret asks excitedly, looking to Varric with a look of longing.

“Okay, okay… let me think here…” Varric grins at her excitedness. “You’re a little trickster, for disrupting my _wonderfully_ thought out plan, so… lets got with Tricksy.”

Margaret bursts out laughing. “Oh, wow. I’m never gonna live this down, am I?” Varric shakes his head with a chuckle.

“Hey, me too, me too?” Emily wonders expectantly.

“Hrm, you’re a tough one… can’t give the Herald too bad of a nickname… and I think that’s enough of a title to bear already. Sorry, kid, I’ve got nothing for ya.” Varric shrugs, draining his mug with a final swig. Emily pouts, and we all share a laugh at her ‘misfortune’.

“Bah, everyone’s a critic.” I shrug, and laugh as I get funny looks from everyone around the table, and I shake my head.

Ah, its been a fun night… but we head off into the unknown in the morning and I let myself stew in my thoughts as everyone settles into an easy and comfortable silence, Varric getting up once – to where, I’m not sure.

“Silver… I think it suits you, Kands.” Margaret says out of nowhere, and I shrug.

“Meh, It’s just a nickname. It don’t mean nothing much, really.”

She just leaves it at that, and soon I hear Varric laughing voice as I spot him weaving through the crowd, a pitcher of what I assume ale in one hand and two more mugs in the other. My lips turn upright, and before I get the chance Emily stands up and helps him in carrying his load back to our table. Varric takes his seat, setting the pitcher onto the table loudly and giving Emily a thankful smile.

“Thank you, your Heraldness.” Varric chuckles and Emily shakes her head in mock shame as she sets the mugs on the table, pushing them towards the dwarf. “I thought I could use a refill, and thought you all might enjoy some drink too.” Emily and Connor already had mugs (ever the alcoholics in training), so Varric grabbed them and filled them up easily, handing them back to their owners, then filling up a mug for himself and then looking to me and Margaret in questioning.

“Oh, uh, sure. Thanks Varric.” Margaret stutters out, noticing that Varric was looking at her for an answer, gratefully taking the mug from the dwarf. I shook my head as Varric looked to me in confusion.

“Oh, c’mon Silver. Live a little!” Varric cheered, pouring me a cup anyways and sliding it over to me. I pushed it away, shaking my head again.

“Sorry, no thank you Varric. I appreciate the gesture, but alcohol and I don’t mix.” I said with a forced smile, and from the corner of my eye I saw Emily visibly flinch from the message behind my words. I gave her a stern glare, and she seemed to back away from this impending conversation in defeat. Varric noticed the exchange, but never mentioned anything, only taking the mug back and shrugging to himself.

“Ah, well. Your loss, my gain.” And with a heart laugh, Varric chugged his first mug in one long gulp, and started on the second one with Emily and Connor cheering him on, Margaret and I eventually joining in forgetting the unspoken words from before.

It was a long but fun night, and eventually as things started to settle down, we bid Varric good night and made our way back to our cabin, me and Margaret once again leading the drunks back to their beds.

~

I rolled out of bed suddenly, blankets catching on my legs and wrapping around my body in some weird human-filled tortilla, as an unexpected knock on the door jolts me awake.

“Gah, I’m awake!” I shout, untangling myself and sitting upright, looking towards the door to where the unwanted noise was emanating. Around me, the other start to drift awake, groans and angry mutterings flowing about the space. Another knock rung out, this one sounding louder and more impatient.

“Jesus, don’t _wanna_ be awake this early…” I heard Emily mumble, and Margret hum in agreement, and I only heard angry groans from Connor – still under the sheets. I groaned to myself – I was the only one who was going to get up and open the door, wasn’t I? Pushing upwards and setting the pile of blankets on to my bed, I dragged my feet over to the door and opened it, squinting from the early morning light.

I must have had a terrible glare on my face, for the poor elf girl with her hand raised to knock again looked shell-shocked and frozen in place.

“What.” I snapped out, probably meaner-sounding than it needed to be – but c’mon, cut me some slack. It’s butt-fuck early in the morning so I’m _allowed_ to be cranky.

Breaking away from her stupor, she managed to stutter out her orders. “L-lady Pentaghast requires a-all o-of your presences at the village gates at once. S-she said at once!” And finishing her sentence, she bolted away like a frightened child. I ‘tsked’ and shook my head, closing the door gently and looking to the tired fools sprawled in front of me.

I clapped my hands loudly to get all of their attentions. “Okay, you sons of bitches! Today we head out into an uncontrolled area where we could possibly die. You better get up and get your asses in gear – we do _not_ want an angry Cassandra coming to find us so I suggest you get moving!”

Emily was the first one to get up, followed shortly by Margaret and soon Connor. I left them to their own devices, gathering up all my stuff and trying to get it organized.

I didn’t have much, and what we needed Josephine readily supplied us with. A brown leather bag that held a few extra pairs of clothes and underthings, and it had space to carry odds and ends, but we really didn’t own much yet. We still had to pick up rations and our tents and the likes from Threnn, the quartermaster, so it was good to have extra room.

I decided that I had all the clothes I needed, so I started to get dressed in my travel clothes. Not much different from my everyday wear, except that the leather pants and woolen tunic were reinforced by a simple leather breastplate, leather greaves, and leather bracers, along with a thick green leather jacket that fell almost to my knees and had an awesome amount of pockets. Harrit really did outdo himself on making something simple and effective in such a small period. I had trouble doing up the fastenings for the first time, but I got them eventually, and when I was done I looked around the room to see how everyone else was coming along.

Connor wore a similar get-up to me, except his jacket was a dark brown and only fell to his hips. Margaret’s breastplate seemed to be reinforced with some metal on the back, and she didn’t sport a jacket but her undershirt looked to be quite thick. Emily was probably the one that stood out the most.  Her bracers and greaves looked to be a thick leather, with metal reinforcing them at the joints, but her breastplate was fully metal with leather straps securing everything together.

“This thing sucks balls.” Emily muttered, pulling the last straps into place. “I don’t _like_ the metal armour; Why do I gotta be the only one who wears it??”

“Physics, and science, Emily. And safety, too.” I tutted, grabbing my bag and jumping around to see if everything felt secure. “Connor and Mags gotta be fast and move around quite often, and I should be nowhere near the heat of the battle, so we can wear leather with no harm. If _you_ wore leather, it would be easier to cut through and since you’re so close to the enemies, it’s a better safety precaution if you wore metal instead.”

“Jeez, way to lay it on me thick man.” Emily chuckled, hitting me lightly as she crossed the room. I laughed lightly in return, and looked around the room once last time.

We all had our armour/travel clothing on, and our bags were packed with our best ability, and all we needed to grab was our weapons on the way out. Emily led the way, followed by Connor and Margaret, with me brining up the rear to make sure nothing was left behind. Grabbing my staff and closing the door and locking it with a click, we headed down to the gates where the rest of our party was presumably waiting for us.

The walk wasn’t supposed to be that far, but with many villagers and refugees lining the already crammed trails through Haven, hoping to get a glimpse at the Herald and her weird friends, it took a bit longer to weave our ways through without trying to push or be rude. We made it, though, and like I expected, Cassandra was waiting there with Solas and Varric with an ever-present look of displeasure gracing her features.

“Finally, it’s about time!” Cassandra sighed, exasperated, shuffling around to survey all of us in front of her.

“Sorry, Cassandra. We woke up late, and we had to make it through the villagers.” Emily tried to reason, but Cassandra didn’t seem eager to listen and only motioned for us to start out of Haven.

“We picked up everything that we needed from Threnn, so all you’ll need to do is divvy up what we didn’t already pack up between yourselves.” Varric explained, motioning to a pile of bags where I assumed the tents and the rest of the travel gear were located. We made quick work of the bags, Margaret and Connor each deciding to carry a tent, Emily taking the rest of the travel supplies, and I took the last bag that seemed to hold some of the food rations.

“I think we’re good.” Margaret smiled, looking to Cassandra for confirmation.

“Yes, I do believe so.” Cassandra looked around us again. “The Hinterlands are at least a five-day hike if we keep good time, and avoid any distractions or obstacles, and if the weather stays generally clear.”

“Wait, we’re _walking_ there?” Connor exclaimed suddenly, looking around wildly to the group. “I thought we’d be taking horses or something. Jesus, five days is a _long_ time!”

“Well, you’ll have to suck it up, Connor. I think we’d take horses if we could, right?” I scolded Connor, then looked to Cassandra in question. She nodded in response, letting out a sigh.

“You are correct, Kandice. We do not have the resources to spare the horses for such a journey, so must unfortunately make the expedition on foot.” Cassandra sighed again, straightening the bag on her back. “But enough time-wasting. We must set out if we wish to make decent time by nightfall.”

With no protests (well, no more than necessary) we all headed out onto the beaten path leading to the Hinterlands. It was going to be a _fun_ trip.

Ha ha sarcasm. Yay.


	13. Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back again! Sorry for the little wait - this week has been quite hectic, writing essays for scholarships and universities and all that fun. BUT! We're finally out of Haven and at the beginnings of our adventure with our group of misfits. A new introduction, and some magic theory along with motivation speeches by our resident dwarf, I hope that you all enjoy the chapter!

I swear my legs were going to fall off. I’m not even exaggerating, they were so sore and tired.

This first day of the trip was, well… _eventful,_ you could say. We’d come across _two_ separate Fade rifts, and there were _terrors_. God damned terrors, always spooking me, always trying to claw at everyone… I swear there was one-time Emily almost got clawed right down the back and I just… panicked… and well, I learned a new spell today!

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emily fighting off a shade and a terror just flew out of the ground behind her, and out of instincts I focused all of my energy towards her and wham, a magical barrier formed around her, blocking the terror’s claws and allowing her to defeat the shade and begin assaulting the other demon.

And do you know the best thing? My magical barrier was _silver!_ After the fight, Varric had come over to point out that minute detail, saying how his nickname for me is even more validated now, and all I did was scowl and laugh lightly. Solas never said anything, but I do think he was a bit intrigued by the color of my barrier, since in battle his have been a consistent green or light blue, and all he seemed to do was give me a look that made me think ‘we’ll talk later’.

Ugh, that pompous egg…

Anyways, the day was more eventful than we anticipated, and by the time the sun was falling in the sky and we stopped to camp for the night, Cassandra seemed to only scowl as she set up one of the tents.

“What seems to be the matter Cassandra? Anything I can do to help?” I asked, walking over to the Seeker, who continued to scowl as she finished up her task.

“No, do not worry yourself Kandice… It is only that this much interference was not expected, and our journey may last longer than needed if many more rifts like these are along our route.” Cassandra explained, standing up and dusting her armor off. Like Emily, she wore full metal armor, with hers having the Templar sword emblazed on the front of the breastplate.

“Well, that’s a bummer… just don’t let Connor know, okay?” I smiled to Cassandra, and she managed to give a small upturn of her lips in return.

I looked around the rest of our small campsite to see all of the tents were all up and ready, and that the sky was getting much darker. I walked over to Varric, who was in the middle of the semi-circle of tents, trying to start up a campfire. As I made it over to him, sparks finally caught the wood and it started up in flames.

“There we go!” Varric exclaimed, standing up and dusting off his knees. He spotted me on the other side of the fire and waved me over to his side. “Hey there, Silver! How goes the camp?”

“Heh, its going good Varric. All the tents have been set up, and now you’ve got the fire going.” I explained to the dwarf who nodded in understanding. We moved to one of the logs Varric somehow brought over in the short time since we made camp and sat down as the fire burned to life.

“So, Silver. You’ve been quiet most of today… What’s on your mind there, kid?” Varric asked with a low voice, sincerity in his voice. I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to think of a good answer.

It’s true. I guess I didn’t really talk with the anyone today, other than the short time we stopped to take lunch. _What was on my mind? Gosh, I’m not even sure…_

“Uhm, well… Honestly, I don’t really know, Varric…” I started, looking into the small flames as they burned. “I guess I’m just nervous? We’ve never really been _in_ a battle, and from what Leliana has been reporting since we decided to come to the Hinterlands, the place is full of fighting – _people_ that are fighting _,_ Varric. I’ve never killed anyone.”

Varric was quiet for a moment, then looked to me with a sad smile. “It doesn’t get easier with time, I’ll tell ya, no matter what anyone else says. I like to think I’m doing it for a higher purpose, I don’t think I could kill anyone _just_ to kill them, you feel? And I think, if none of you get comfortable with that aspect of the fight, just direct the Seeker, Chuckles, or I and I’m sure we could help out the rookies like you.” At that last part, the dwarf nudged me playfully with his elbow, making me laugh slightly and forget about my worries for a moment.

“Thanks, Varric. I think that would help.” I gave him a sincere smile, and he returned one with equal emotion. I looked up after a bit, to see Emily and Margaret discussing… something on the other side of camp. “Y’know, I don’t think its _me,_ that I’m worried about… I worry about Emily. She’s still barely an adult, and she’s my mum’s youngest so she’s been kinda sheltered her whole life… I think if she had to take someone’s life, it would break her…”

Varric looked to where she stood, laughing with Margaret and Connor now, and gave another sad smile. “I think she can do it, I think she’s tougher than you give her credit for. I’m not saying she’ll enjoy it – if she does, that’s a major warning sigh right there – but give her time and encouragement, and I’m sure she could surprise you with what she can do.” I smiled down to the dwarf, who rested a hand in the crook of my elbow in affection, but then he looked to Emily with a frown etched into his features.

“What seems to be the matter there, Varric?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows at the dwarf.

“What did you mean by ‘barely an adult’?” Varric asked, giving me a funny look. “How old are you all actually?”

I gave out a short laugh at the unexpected question. “Oh jeez, Varric. I thought something terrible was happening, with that look on your face!” At my words, Varric scowled playfully. “She’s just turned 18, I’m 19, and both Margaret and Connor are 18 soon to be 19 – their birthdays are later in the year.”

“Huh.” Was all the dwarf said before he chuckled lightly. “I honestly thought you all were older, but I guess that’s just my old eyes, eh?”

We sat together for a bit more, just enjoying the last of the sunlight and the sounds of the fire crackling and the wind blowing through the trees, until Emily broke off her conversation – now joined by Cassandra and Solas ( _jeez, what was she talking about over there?_ ) – and marched over to where Varric and I sat with a look of determination in her eyes.

“Woah, there, your Heraldness. What seems to have your breeches in a bunch?” Varric asked with a playful smirk, and Emily tapped him lightly on the arm in response.

“This is a serious matter, Varric. We can’t decide on the sleeping arrangements.”

Varric and I both snorted at her remark – really, such a small thing having taken up such importance to her?

“Well, what have you decided so far?” I asked.

“So – we have three tents and seven people to split between them. Four girls, three guys. Either the three guys sleep in the bigger of the tents – which seems like the least likely – or three gals sleep there and the other rooms with a guy. It’s stupidly complicated, and I have to make all the darn decisions!” Emily explained, pacing in front of our seating place.

“No, its not. Really.” I told Emily with an exasperated sigh. “You, Mags, and Cass can share the larger tent – like you said, three girls in there would sleep more comfortable – and then I can just share a tent with Connor. Quick and simple, love.”

Emily just gave me a glare. “Y’know, if I found you first I would have just saved like ten minutes of my sanity.”

I shrugged, chuckling lightly, and got up from my seat, giving Varric a nod goodbye. Emily only shrugged in return and went off somewhere – it was getting too dark to see much around me, so I cast a small fireball to lead the way as I left the light of the campfire – and Varric wished us well until the morning.

It didn’t take me long to find Solas. He was just a bit a ways away from the circle of tents, just seeming looking towards the sky. He must have heard, or felt, me approach and turned around to greet me with a slight turn of his lips.

“Good evening, Kandice. What may I do for you?” The egg asked in that ever-smooth voice of his. I walked up to stand beside him and gave off a small sigh.

“Is my magic weird?” I asked bluntly, looking to the taller elf. He looked at me with a confused face, then scrunched up his nose in thought.

“No, I would not say that your magic is weird, per se.” Solas began, looking again to the stars above us. “It is unusual, is all. I have not seen a mage with a silver aura for many years – it is quite a rare trait for a magic user.”

“What does it mean, though? And why _me_? I’m so new at magic, could it be something to do with that??” I asked question after question, not getting any answers.

“Slow down, _da’len_. It is not something you should be worried about.” Solas said with a chuckle, and I resisted the urge to correct him in calling me a child. I let him continue with his explanation. “Silver magic is rare – only very young mages who come into their magic early have shown this type of magic, and yet it develops brighter as they age, and their magic develops until they choose a specialty in their practice. Even then, their magic is not always silver – sometimes their aura can predict and reflect the kind of magic they will specialise in once they are older – though none have understood or come up with a reason as to why your inborn magika could infer this. It is even more uncommon for that child to keep their silver magic into adulthood – some say it represents purity, in never having harmed another with their powers, or even never having fully developed their skills as a child. It is still quite unknown, and since the Chantry still wished to keep mages under lock and key, not many have had the chance to try and study this phenomenon.”

I was silent for a few minutes, trying to process all this information. “…Okay, I think I get it. Because I’ve just come into my magic, even though I’m not a child anymore, this silver magic stuff could just mean that I’m unexperienced, and it could change colors as I grow? Is that what you mean?”

Solas gave me a small smile. “You are correct! In a few weeks from now, once you get more of a chance to hone your skills and decide which school or schools of magic you prefer to use, your magic may change its color – or it may stay they same. The color of magics have always been an anomaly to the magical community. Let’s see… alright, focus on me and tell me what you see, magic wise.”

Startled by his demand, I looked at the elf in front of me and focused on the magic around him. Just like the first time I connected to the Fade, I closed my eyes and reached for that green portal in my mind. Opening my eyes once again, I could see the magical particle floating around Solas – in shades of green, gold, and blue.

“I see it, Solas!” I whisper in awe, finally putting meaning to what I’m seeing. “Green, blue, and golden!”

“Excellent work, Kandice.” Solas congratulated with a smile. “Yes, green and blue are there to represent my specialty in Winter and Spirit magic, but the darker shades of green can also show my abilities as a Rift mage. The golden is an anomaly as well, unfortunately. I am sorry, but I do not quite know how to explain.” I lifted an eyebrow at the elf – _I bet he knows what it means, he just doesn’t want to say!_ – but I let him get away with being vague, this time.

“Okay… okay, yeah that makes sense…” I mumbled, looking back up to the stars. The sky of Thedas was beautiful – no pollution or factory smoke to get in the way of the magnificent stars and constellations that dotted the night sky – and it was sort of relaxing and hypnotizing to just watch them with no care for anything else. And since it was quite dark now, and we were farther away from Haven, so there wasn’t much green smoke or weird stuff clouding the sky like the Breach did back near the Temple explosion site. I looked back to Solas to see that he was also looking at the stars above, and it was just… good, to be able to not talk but just keep each other company under the night sky.

 _Wait. What the fuck are you talking about, you crazy bitch? We KNOW who this guy_ is _right, unless Bioware was wrong on that shit. Fuck dick balls, DON’T fall for the egg man! DO NOT!_

He must have felt me staring, so he looked back to me and our eyes met. Turing back to looking at the stars with a faint blush on my cheeks – thank GOD it was dark out! – hoping that he just thought I was lost in my mind for that moment there.

_Welp. You done screwed up kid. Time to die, I guess._

_Oh, it can’t be_ that _bad! If we don’t act on our feelings, what’s the harm, eh?_

_O-kay… you say this now… but check back in with me once you have your first mental break-down over your ‘one-true-love’._

I shook my head with a small chuckle, trying to rid the thoughts from my mind.

Solas looked to me once again, this time with a questioning look, but before he had time to say anything, Varric called us all over to the fire – where I assumed he had our warm supper waiting for us. I shrugged with a smile on my face, and we both walked back to the camp, meeting up with everyone else for a simple stew that the dwarf was able to put together with the few rations of dried meat and veggies that we had. That night we shared stories – well, mostly Varric did, but Cassandra shared a few battle tales – and soon after we all left for our respective tents, so we could get a good night’s sleep to start early back to our journey in the morning.

~

Like Cassandra thought, we kept running in to more Fade rifts – but luckily no bandits or rogues or any baddies like that – and it took us two more days than scheduled to reach the first camp in the Hinterlands. Just like I thought, once Connor realized it would take longer than expected he complained – quite loudly, I would say – but Varric had bribed him with rounds in the tavern on him the first night back in Haven, and it shut him up for the rest of the journey.

Approaching the Inquisition camp felt like a relief – it was still early afternoon, so we wouldn’t make camp for a while – but seeing a familiar setting after being by ourselves the past week was quite a refresher. As we walked up to the great circle of tents, a short woman – dwarf, I corrected myself – walked to join us with a smile on her face.

“Herald of Andraste! I’ve heard the stories. Everyone has. We know what you did at the Breach It’s an honor to meet you, my Lady.” The redhead stated with a smile of gratitude on her plump lips. I smiled to woman as well, although she may not have seen me – I was farther back in our small grouping, where Emily and Cassandra lead us. “Inquisition Scout Harding at your service! I – all of use here – will do whatever we can to help!”

Like expected, I felt Varric shift beside me and I felt a smirk reach my lips as he greeted the other dwarf. “Harding, eh? Ever been to Kirkwall’s Hightown?”

“… Can’t say I have, no. Why?” Harding replied, with a look of confusion on her face.

“Because you’d be Harding in Hight – oh, uh, never mind.” Varric ended awkwardly, shuffling back to stand beside me as Harding gave him another weird look. Cassandra made one of her famous ‘disgusted noises’ as Varric finished his words.

Emily cleared her throat and looked to the Scout with a kind smile. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Scout Harding, and I’m glad we have such hard workers willing to give their all to the cause.”

“We should get to business, then. The situation is… pretty dire.” Harding began with a saddened look towards the beaten path that I assumed led down to the Crossroads. “We came to secure horse from Redcliff’s old horse master. Dennet’s horses are to be the best this side of the Frostbacks, but with mage-templar rebellion and fighting getting worse, we haven’t been able to reach him yet. Maker knows if he’s even still alive… Mother Giselle has been sighted at the Crossroads, helping with the wounded and the refugees. Our latest reports say that the war has spread there, too…”

“Then we should go help out, _now_ , if you say things are that bad!” Emily exclaimed, looking to Cassandra and Harding for confirmation.

Harding nodded in agreement, and it looked like Cassandra did as well from the corner of my eyes. “Yes. Corporal Vale and his men are doing everything to protect the people, but I’m honestly not sure how much longer they can hold out. Like you said, it would be best to get going as soon as your group is ready. No time to lose.”

With a look of determination on her face, Emily – with the help of our lovely guide the Seeker – lead us towards the Crossroads, where I knew that our first hard battle faced us. With a nod to Margaret and Connor to my sides, we all looked forwards with looks as tough as our young leader – we were ready to face anything, so long as she joined us.

And that’s a lotta faith for a couple of kids in the ass-end of this weird-ass world to have.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elvish Translations:  
> Da'len - little child/little one


	14. Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALRIGHT GUYS!!! I know, its been forEVER, but I swear I am NOT dead! October was such a busy month for me, I was in a play and we had sooo many practices, but it went so well, and I am so proud of us all!  
> But enough about me, lol. We FINALLY see some action in the Hinterlands this chapter, sorry its a bit on the shorter side, but I wanted to give you guys something as you wait for more plot-heavy stuffs! I really hope you still stick with me, because I WILL see this book to the end, even if it has 200 plus chapter and millions of words with still no romance LOL! Enjoy this chapter, and I really do appreciate you all who leave feedback!  
> Have a lovely read, all!

It was a longer trek to the Crossroads than I remembered from in game. None of us talked, so it was a tense period where we jogged with our weapons half drawn, waiting for enemies to just spring out towards us with no warnings. I kept trying to get a glance at Emily, but with her at the front and me near the back with Varric, it was hard to see any emotions or concerns radiating off her face. At one point, Margaret spared me a smile of reassurance and kept her brisk pace up – Cassandra always keeping us on our feet.

As we continued to get closer, I could begin to hear fighting.

I didn’t like it.

It sounded much different than battling demons and other monstrous creatures. You could hear… pain, and death, of _actual_ human beings. Screams and wails that marked the end of many lives seemed to rebound around the shallow rocky ledges and imprint themselves in to my brain…

I shook my head, trying to center my focus and to try and stay calm. There’s no point in getting worked up, yeah?

_Just think of it like the game! They aren’t real people, just horribly amazing feats of computer graphics and wonderful voice acting! … You can’t kill a computer for real, right?_

As we begin to descend farther down the mountain ledge, it seems to grow really quiet, save for a few dying wails and pained groans.

I scrunch up my eyebrows, gripping harder onto my staff and taking a deep breath.

The thing that hit me first was the smell. Despite these being ‘new’ corpses that were scattered in front of us, the smell of rotting flesh and burning flesh and the metallic tang of blood all mixing together under the sun and string winds was enough to almost make me retch. Almost. I looked around, and Emily, Connor, and Margaret all seemed to feel the same about the stench.

Poor Connor actually doubled over and threw up the contents of his stomach. Ew. Varric chuckled lightly despite the tense situation, handed him a water skin, and patted him on the back in reassurance. I looked the Cassandra, who was turning in a slow circle to see if there were any advancing enemies. Strangely, there weren’t any.

I spared a glance towards Solas, who seemed to have his usual look – neutral, not showing any emotions or any thoughts or shit. _Bitch egg. You suck. Bleh._

Suddenly, I hear Cassandra unsheathing her sword, the metallic ring making me spin around towards her to see a group of maybe seven or eight soldiers – knights? fighters? – running over a small hill, right towards us, and Cassandra whipped her head around and shouted to get our attention.

“Templars approaching! Prepare yourselves!”

Shit. Templars… I’m a mage in this world… _shit! Bitch tits balls! Shiiiitt!!!_

I freeze in place, thinking _oh god, I’m gonna die!_ when Margaret and Connor run past me, Margaret with her daggers drawn and Connor with an arrow already in his grip, right up to where Cassandra had seemed to run off to meet the templars in combat. I shook my head, trying to get _out_ of my head, and started a brisk run to join the fray.

The templars seem to close in on us, and Cassandra is the one to make the first attack, slashing at an incoming soldier before he has time to parry, almost throwing him to the ground right away. _Jeezum crow, Cass! You go you strong lady, you!_ I smile to myself, before choosing a position near the outer most area of fighting and start throwing up barriers where I can. Solas seems to have the same idea, and even puts one around me. I chuckle a bit at that.

Connor and Varric seem to have the same gist as us mages, taking up places near the outskirts of the battle, and they both start firing their arrows and bolts, and Varric’s seem to find the neck of one templar right away. I flinch at the sight of the man falling and choking on his own blood, but I steel myself and start firing simple bursts of fire and ice, hoping to do some amount of damage.

Cassandra has already fallen two templars, one with the help of Emily, and Margaret and my dearest sister have begun to bleed and a third falls. _With Varric’s shot, four of eight down. It’s going easier and faster than I thought!_

More fire, and some lightning, and replacing some of the weakening barriers, I seem to already have a grip on the flow of this battle.

And then the next thing I know I’m knocked flat on my face from some weird wind, knocking the air out of my lungs and marking my entire body groan and moan, hurting all over, and a splitting headache begin to appear. Gasping for breath, I feel myself being pulled up and something being put to my lips. I drink without care, and my body begins to feel all… tingly inside. I take a deep breath and look up to the face of my saviour – Solas, it seems – with a look of confusion.

“That was a templar’s smite. I should have forewarned you that could have been a potential attack against you, I apologize. That lyrium potion should help you regain some strength, as well as some of your magic.” Solas explains, looking me up and down for signs of any other injuries. “Can you manage on your own?”

I nod briskly, taking in another deep breath, letting go of the tall elf and steadying myself with my staff. He looks to me with a nod and he returns to his place a few paces away and begins to fire at the two remaining templars. I see Emily and Margaret have attacked another, and one corpse seems to be littered with arrows and bolts, and Cass seems to be taking care of one of the last guys. I gather my strength, and I focus all my energy to blast the biggest fireball I could muster right towards the face of one of those ugly templars. He falls with a scream, and the last guy becomes a victim to Cassandra’s sword.

There’s no time to celebrate our victory, however, as another group of fighters – in robes? – show up from the opposite side those templars did.

“Apostates! Be cautions, and ready yourselves!” Cassandra shouts over their battle cries, and we ready ourselves again. There were only five mages but looks can be deceiving. Emily almost gets hit with a fireball right to the face before I managed to get a barrier around her, and she charged at him with a ferocious cry.

Before I do anything else, I make sure to get a barrier around everyone, including Solas and myself, and then ice shards blast from my staff and easily impale one of the mages as he falls to the ground with a cry of pain. From the corner of my eye, I see Connor and Varric firing like crazy, and soon one, then two mages fall. _Two more of those bastards to go!_ I strengthen Cassandra’s barrier as she charges one, felling him in two swift motions before he has the time to cast a spell, and Margaret was so fast I didn’t even see her slit the last guy’s throat until he lay dead at her feet.

I heave another large breath, looking around once more until I see movement on the horizon.

“Mages – er, apostates I guess – on the move! Looks like four of them!” I shout out, trying to get their attention.

“Templars approaching! Looks to number about five!” Emily yells from my other side, and I glance a look to see she was right. _Yay, a mix of both of these bitches! Fun._

Steeling myself, I cast barriers again – jeez, all I seem to be doing is casting barriers! – as the archers continue archering and Cassandra charges the Templars and Emily charges the Mages, with Margaret disappearing from my vision. _Is she in sneak??_

My question gets answered as a mage falls, clutching his throat and Margaret appearing from a cloud of smoke. I begin to throw fire, ice, and lighting like my life depended on it – well, it honestly did – and I target the mages with the ice spikes more since it easily pierces their thin robes.

The mages are the first to fall, then Emily and Margaret join Cassandra to fight off the last three remaining templars – of, two, since one falls with arrows jutting out of his body. Throwing up more barriers, the swords make quick work of the last remaining soldiers, and then all is quiet.

Before I have a chance to congratulate everyone, I fall to the ground, blacking out from exhaustion.

~

I come to, who knows how long later, on a soft bedroll underneath a leather tent. Sitting up, I notice I’m out of my armour and in regular clothes – like the which I would have worn around Haven – and I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion. My staff is laying beside me, so I’m not hostage anywhere… but where am I then?

I gently crawl out of then tent, hoping to look at my surroundings, but as I stand up I’m almost thrown back down from the impetus of another body hugging mine.

“Oh, your awake! That’s so great! How to do feel!” Emily word-vomits, detaching herself from me and looking me in the eyes with a smile.

“Uhm, well… tired, and sore, honestly.” I answer with a chuckle, and she squeezes my sides in reassurement. “But what happened love? The last thing I remember was we beat those guys asses’.”

“Well, what Solas said was that your body was so tired and drained of energy – but you pumped so full of adrenaline from the battle – that as soon as you let yourself relax your body took over and needed to rest up fast.” She explained in a quick breath. “Its not been that long, not even a full day!”

“Wait, I spent almost a full day passed out, just because my body was _tired_? That’s wack, man.” I replied with another chuckle, finding a place to sit down on some crates just outside the tent I just left. Looking around, I notice that this was the Inquisition camp that we started in yesterday before the battle, but I couldn’t spot any other members of our party. “Hey kid, where’s everyone else gone to?”

Hey eyebrow twitches at the nickname but smiles anyway. “So we actually did a bit while you were asleep. I met that Mother Giselle lady, and she’s agreed to help us with the Chantry issue. Right now, Varric and Maggie are out hunting – these refugees have got literally nothing Kands, and we’re trying to help the best we can. Solas is helping to heal all he can – although in vain, since many won’t let themselves be treated by magical means – and Connor’s learning from some of the Sisters how to heal and treat injuries with the medicines available here. Cassandra’s been talking war efforts with the guy they have here – think his name is Vale, or something – and I’ve been in and out of the Crossroads and here, checking up on what I can, and especially you!”

I let myself have a minute to absorb all the information she just spit at me.

I look to her with a proud look in my eyes. “All right, my dear. What’s next?”


	15. Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK Y'ALL! Sorry that I keep disappearing every now and then, but I bring you the gift of a longer chapter! I take liberties again with magic, and this time medical lore - I know I'm not very well versed in DA lore, so if I ever blatantly ignore or discredit anything to do with the lore, PLEASE tell me! I want to put my own twist on this world, but I don't want to really go over anything too much! I just want you guys to tell me so I can try and change it, so everything complies to cannon as much as possible :)
> 
> But ANYWAYS! Today we get in the Hinterlands, and then we get out of there lol! Some plot, but mostly filler! Next time, we head to Haven and then I believe to Val Royaux if I get my ass in gear and write the next chapter lol.
> 
> (And I found out yesterday how I wanted this whole story to end - not gonna lie, it made me cry! I hope you all enjoy this book enough to stick with me to the bitter end!)
> 
> Have a good day, and I hope you all enjoy this next chapter!

“So… you talked to Mother Giselle, yeah?” I asked suddenly, as Emily and I made our way from the camp down to the Crossroads.

Emily smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I did! She seemed eager to help – but I still don’t quite understand what for though…” She trailed off, a look of thinking crossing her face.

“Well, Mother Giselle is a _mother_ of the Chantry – they’re the ones who’re basically our biggest threat right now. If the Chantry don’t like us, no one else will, and then we won’t be able to do anything with that giant ass hole in the sky.” I tried to explain as best I could – hell, I barely understood why, but that’s Bioware lore for ya.

“… and the Chantry is what, again?” Emily asked in a quiet voice, and I shook my head at her questions.

“Think of it like the Church, like modern-day Christianity, except worse.” I replied with a small chuckle. “If you think of it in that sense, it shouldn’t cause you too much confusion.”

“… okay, I think I get it.” She mumbled, fingering her sleeves. She stayed quiet for the rest of our walk – thank god Cassandra wasn’t here otherwise we’d need to run for our lives (lol) – and soon the Crossroads were within our sight.

It was a much different sight, and smell, then yesterday. Most of the corpses had been moved away from the buildings and either burned or buried from there – the only smell that really remained was the scent of burnt flesh, plus the metallic tang of dried, stale blood. With the absence of dead bodies, refugees began returning to the town, and I could see what I assumed were soldiers patrolling around the area.

“We should go find Cassandra first.” Emily chirped, spooking me out of my thoughts. “Maybe she’ll have an idea of what to do next.” I nodded in agreement, and then we just began wandering around until we would eventually find our friend. If I was completely honest, I couldn’t remember the layout of _anything_ from this game for the life of me. First things first, I didn’t have a handy-dandy electronic map to keep track of my exact location, and second everything just seemed to be so much _bigger_ and there seemed to be so much more than I remembered – just like how it was in Haven.

We kind of just kept walking in a straight line – ‘cause we didn’t wanna get turned around and get lost, now did we? – until I was spooked out of my thoughts once again as someone yells at us, or well, they really yell at Emily to get her attention.

“Herald! There you are!” Cassandra pants as she runs up in front of us, wiping her brow quickly. “I went to go find you in the Inquisition’s camp, but they told me you had come down to the Crossroads. I thought I told you not to go wandering around on your own!”

Emily smiled meekly, a hand going up to scratch the back of her head in embarrassment. “Uh, yeah, about that…”

I smacked her arm lightly, scowling. “You never told me that you shouldn’t have left the camp! We could have waited for Cassandra to come back, if that was the case!”

“Your sister is right Herald…” Cassandra begins, a slight scowl on her features as well. “But I should not expect you to remain hidden where it is safe. I understand your want to explore.”

I scowled at Cassandra’s words, but Emily seemed to beam at them. “Thank you, Cassandra. I know I should stay safe, but I do really want to try and help – wherever I can! And plus, I’ve got Kandice here – if anyone could keep me safe, it’s her!”

“Well, that is good to know…” Cassandra says lightly, shifting from foot to foot as we keep walking at a slow pace around the Crossroads. “But I do believe it would still be wiser to stay with either Solas or myself as you and your companions familiarise yourselves with the surroundings. You all stated that you had never been to far from your homes, or am I mistaken?” After she finishes speaking, she looks at Emily and I in turn, seemingly waiting for an answer. Before I get a chance to speak, Emily gives the Seeker a bright smile.

“Oh, yah, we’re not the heroes or explorer types like you, Varric, or even Solas. I was just thinking cause she’s got magic I would be safe, right?” Emily says innocently, and I resist the urge to smack her upside the face.

I feel the tension in Cassandra’s shoulders tighten as we start another lap of the Crossroads. “You must not be very well versed in how magic works – even your sister seems uncomfortable with your statement. Am I correct in assuming so?”

“What do you mean, Cassandra?” Emily asks with a look of confusion, stopping to look at the Seeker. “Does her having magic… mean something bad?”

“Not necessarily, kid.” I interrupt before Cass has a chance to answer. “Being magical, I’m basically connected to the Fade. And that’s not really a good thing – y’know the Breach in the sky? Its like a big hole in the Fade, and all those demons are from there. Being connected to the Fade, there’s a big risk I could be possessed – especially not being a properly trained mage – and that’s a bad thing to happen, cause a demon could become ten times more powerful if it had a corporeal body to manipulate in this world.”

Emily and Cassandra were both quiet for a few minutes – Emily looking deep in thought, yet Cassandra looking at me with a mix of confusion… and suspicion? I don’t know…

“Oh.” Was all Emily said. “That doesn’t sound too good… but I believe in you, you wouldn’t let that happen, eh?” I smiled lightly at her thinking, nodding along to her ideas. Cassandra still never said anything.

We started walking again, until a force hugged me from behind, almost making me bump into Emily and Cassandra in front on me.

“Goddammit Margaret!” I laughed, trying to pry her arms away. “We really gotta stop meeting like this, okay?”

Margaret laughed in return. “I’m sorry, but you’re just so huggable!”

From behind her, Varric chuckles at the scene unfolding before him.

“What’s so funny, dwarf man? Would you like me to run at you and topple you over?” I say in a playful tone, sticking my tongue out at him.

He held his hands up in surrender with another chuckle. “I would prefer if you not do that, please and thank you.”

“How was your hunting, Varric?” Cassandra adds to the conversation, and Margaret brightens up from beside me.

“It was fun! We got a lot of rams – and Varric taught me a lot of cool dagger skills like slicing at the right moment, and how to skin the creature, and to gut it, to cut off the genitals –” Margaret took a deep breath and continued her rambling as I stared at her in wonder. “And he was so baffled that I’d never skinned a creature before, yeah? And he kept making fun of me, but I showed him by using that ‘sneak’ skill he taught me to kill a ram before he even noticed I was missing! It was funny to see a man so little get so worked up!” At the end of her rambles, she was red in the face from excitement and Emily and I were laughing lightly at the embarrassed look on Varric’s face. Cassandra just made another one of her ‘disgusted noises’.

The dwarf in question coughed lightly before he spoke. “It was, uh, it was successful, like Tricksy said. We dropped off what? I think four decent sized rams before we ran into you. The refugee hunter looked real happy when we showed up.”

“Well, that’s good. I’m glad we can make a dent in what needs to be done and helped out with around here.” Emily beamed, looking proudly at Margaret and Varric.

“Yes, thank you both for your work today.” Cassandra said with a small smile. “I do believe it would be wise to return to the camp for the night. The sun will be down soon, and we have much to accomplish tomorrow.”

We all agree with Cassandra and begin to make our way back towards our camp for the night.

“Oh yeah, by the way – what did you find out from the Commander here, Cassandra? What does he need us to help out with?” Emily asks after a little bit.

“That is what I meant when I mentioned that we had much to do in the morn. Commander Vale wishes for us to eliminate the threat of both Templars and Apostates in the area – he believes that they have base camps set up somewhere here in the Hinterlands – and there was a recruit who wished us to search for Apostate caches for any supplies that may be useful to the refugees. And there is the task that Scout Harding mentioned to me this morning – to seek out Redcliff’s old horse master to see if he would be able to supply the Inquisition with horses.” Cassandra explained as we walked, and we all stayed in silenced listening to her words.

Without realizing it, we had made it back to the camp and there was the beginning of a firepit in the center of the tents. Wandering around the camp was Solas, and Connor was off to the side, his nose deep in to a book of some kind. As we all made it to the camp, we all went our separate ways for the night. I decided to walk over to my main man Connor. Plopping down beside him, I peeked over his shoulder trying to read whatever he was.

“It’s a book on medicinal treatments for various illnesses from a fever to their version of what appears to be cancerous bacteria or tuberculosis. The symptoms that are written seem to be similar to our world’s maladies, at least.” Connor states, not looking up from his book. “One of the Sister’s gave this to me when I expressed that I had a bit of background knowledge in ‘healing’ and that I wanted to help. Its been an interesting read so far.”

I nodded in interest. “That’s fascinating. What are the treatments like, though?”

“Oh, god. So primitive like blood-letting and exorcisms to ‘rid the body of evil’ and all that kind of jargon.” Connor laughed suddenly, making me chuckle at the absurdity. “Of course, there’s some practical uses in this book – especially the magical ones. There are apparently these healing potions that can be so strong, that they could potentially cure genetic blindness!”

“Oh, wow. That’s actually pretty neat.” I exclaimed softly in wonder. “That can’t be a common thing, though, can it?”

“God no. There’s only one recorded case like twenty some years ago where a noble’s kid had a bunch of mages pour all their power into making this one potion.” Connor explained. “But its still fascinating to read about. This is the history of medicine I would read about in my textbooks, minus the magical aspect of course – but here we are, basically experiencing the evolution of science and medicine in _real time!_ Its absolutely amazing!” As he finished, his eyes seemed to sparkle in wonder and fascination, and he seemed truly happy in this moment.

Connor looked up to the sky after a moment and sighed. “I guess I should put this away for now. It’ll be dark soon, eh?” I nodded with a smile, and he excused himself to go put it away in I assume somewhere in his tent.

For a couple of minutes, I sat watching the sky above me, and the fire in front of me, and listening to the idle chatter of the camp around me, relishing in the relative peace. I was startled, then, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Looking up, I see Cassandra with a look about her face.

“Please follow me. I wish to speak with you – privately.” She demanded, her stern features staring in to my soul. I looked at her with raised eyebrows but complied nonetheless and followed her a few feet away from the camp and its’ occupants.

“What’s this about Cassandra? What was so private that we need to step away from the camp?” I asked with a cautious voice, looking to the woman in question with confusion. She was standing with her back facing me. With a sigh, she turned to look at me with a pained expression – which made me even more confused.

“It has come to my attention that you yourself were never fully questioned for the events that transpired at the Temple of Sacred Ashes – by the time your identity of bearing the same mark as your sister came to light, she was no longer under suspicion – thus allowing you and your friends to be seemingly exempt from guilt as well.” Cassandra began with a hard tone to her voice – like she was struggling to say what comes next. “By your actions today, of knowing just how mages are treated and connected to the Fade like that, I was curious, because I thought Solas was only teaching you practical materials. When we got back to camp, I asked him about your knowledge, and he admitted to sharing of what you know, yet he could not explain how you knew such in depth knowledge after coming so late into your magic. My question is simple: How do you know what you know? Is there more to you, that we should be worried about?”

My eyebrows furrowed in thought, I kept my face turned to the ground, wondering what I could say that would make me appear innocent.

_Jeezum crow… I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and now I could make us all wind up dead or locked up because I couldn’t stop myself from speaking! Stupid, stupid, STUPID!_

_Ugh, snap out of it! You need to think, THINK!_

“First of all – you need to believe me that when I woke from being in the Fade that was the first time in my life that I had ever done anything ‘magical’.” I start off slowly, looking to see Cassandra with her eyebrows knitted, waiting for an appropriate answer. “But prior to that day, I always had a fascination with anything magical – reading anything I could, despite there not being many books except those supplied by the Chantry in my home village. They would mostly depict the horrors that mages could be – that’s where the knowledge of possession and the connection to the Fade are from – and of course many know about Abominations and how horrible they can be, that’s almost general knowledge around Ferelden. The reason Emily does not know much, however, is that she is my mother’s youngest, and we tried vainly for most of her life to keep her from harm and the cruelty of this world. My mother was a survivor of the Blight, and so were we – so she knew just how horrid life can be.”

I finished my tale, my breath catching, hoping that Cassandra believes my words.

“Alright.” She finally says after a tense minute. “I do not believe that is the whole story – but I will believe you for now. If not for your sake, for your sister’s.”

I exhaled a deep breath and nodded my thanks to Cassandra as she stalked back towards the camp. I slid down the nearest tree to the ground, letting my head rest in my lap, trying to even my breathing before I head back to the camp. The more I tried, though, my breath kept catching, and before I realized it tears were falling down my cheeks and my breaths turned into broken sobs.

_You goddamn IDIOT! If she didn’t believe your stupid lies, she might have cut you down then and there! Why do you always have to make everything so damn difficult in your life?!? You should have just died the moment you stepped out of the Fade! –_

I was startled out of my sob-fest with a gentle hand resting itself on my shoulder.

“I do not think it wise for you to get yourself so worked up, _da’len._ In times of great emotion, you are vulnerable to outburst of magic if not trained to properly separate your emotions from how your magic works, which are so interconnected when beginning as a novice.” Solas explained softly from above me, sitting down with grace beside me. I hid my face back into my lap, not wanting to deal with the egg right now, and another sob escaped my lips.

“ _Da’len_. Please, look at me.” With a teary sigh, I turn my head slightly to be able to look at him in the dim light. He had a genuine look of concern on his face – which really surprised me.

“Please stop calling me a child, Solas.” I replied with a sigh, trying to wipe away some of the stray tears on my cheeks. At my words, he furrowed his brows in confusion.

“You understand Elvish?” He asked, as a tentative hand brushed a lock of hair out of my face.

“Some words, not many.” I mumbled, hiding back in my legs trying to conceal a small blush.

He shook his head slightly. “That is a mystery for another day, alas. My current concern is why you are here in the dark when Cassandra returned to the camp without by her side. I was curious to see what was delaying you, and here I find my student crying to herself.”

I chuckled darkly at his words. “It’s nothing, Solas. Nothing you should concern yourself with anyways.”

“I do not believe your words to be true, _da’len_.” He spoke, emphasizing the last word, which drew a frustrated groan from my lips.

“I just don’t wanna talk about it.” I muttered angrily, sitting up and trying to make myself look proper – wiping my eyes and trying to straighten my hair. I looked over to Solas with a scowl, and he still held that mild look of concern. With a sigh, he stood up. Brushing himself off, he looked back at me one more time.

“Do not stay here long, then.” Solas spoke again. “With that, I bid you a good night.”

True to his words, after finishing what needed to say, Solas walked off towards the camp – or where I assumed the camp was. With a jolt, I realized that I didn’t really know the way back in this dark.

“Solas, wait!” I shouted, hopping up and running blindly after the elf, hoping that I was going in the right direction. Suddenly I ran into a hard surface, which really hurt my nose. “Oof!”

A chuckle resonated from in front of me. “What is it, Kandice?”

Rubbing my nose, stunned, I stuttered out my words. “Well, uh, I don’t really know how to get back to the camp… in this dark…”

“Follow me, then.” Solas replied, and it felt as if there was a slight smirk on his face – _that damned pompous egg!_ – and he started to walk but stopped to look back at me. “Unless you need to hold my hand, _da’len_?”

I sneered at him and walked to stand beside him. “No, thank you _hahren._ Lead the way, if you would.”

He shook his head with a small laugh – a genuine laugh, not a chuckle, which made me laugh along – and begin a slow pace for us to make our way back. “My word, you seem to hold many secrets, do you Kandice?”

I just shrugged my shoulders and followed along. We kept a peaceful silence as we walked, and when we made it back to camp I bid farewell to Solas and veered off towards my tent.

I was done with everything for the night, so getting in the tent I stripped off my outerwear and put on a thin shirt – shift? Nightdress? – and settled down onto the comfy fur bedroll for the night _._

~

In the morning, we had a quick breakfast and packed up all our gear and headed out towards our next destination – to find horse master Dennet. But, it was more time consuming than we anticipated…

“Are you _kidding_ me! This is the third damned rift since this morning!” Connor exclaimed, shooting arrows to the shades and wraiths spewing out of the green Fade.

“Stop _talking,_ more _killing_!” I spat through gritted teeth, shooting off fireballs and strengthening barriers. Finally, the last of these pesky demons fell, and the rift was silent as Emily lifted her hand, panting from exertion, and closed the rift with a crack.

“My goodness…” Emily sighed, walking up to my as she wiped off demon guts from her sword. “I could seriously use a nap after all these darned demons.”

“Ugh, I feel icky.” Margaret muttered, trying to wipe off some of the ‘demon goop’, as she so cleverly christened it, from her daggers onto her pants. “Its all sticky and icky and gross to the touch.”

“Lovely wording there, my dear.” I joked, jabbing her in the side as she stuck her tongue at me.

We all sort of stood around for a beat, until Cassandra marched up to us after returning from god knows where.

“There is a good spot to set up an Inquisition camp just over this hill. And I do believe that Master Dennet’s farm is not too far away.” The Seeker explained, and we all nodded and followed her to where she wanted us to go. Just over the hill, like Cassandra explained, was a smooth area just by a small pond that looked like a good place to set up camp for Inquisition soldiers and scouts. Cassandra looked like she made a mental note of the area, and then we headed off again to the farm.

Coming up on an old looking building, I realized it was his house, and it looked like it would not appreciate seven travellers with all their gear stepping into his home.

“Hey, uh, Cassandra?” I called from the back of the party. She stopped momentarily and raised an eyebrow at me. “I don’t think we all need to go in there, right? It should really just be you, Emily, and maybe Solas trying to talk to him.”

She mussed my words over for a moment. “That seems plausible, if that is okay with everyone else, especially you, Herald?”

Emily nodded her head, so Varric, Margaret, Connor, and I all stood around awkwardly outside waiting for them to discuss politics and all that jazz.

It was a sort of peaceful silence – so far, we hadn’t run into any templar or rebel mage groups so far today, but I could feel the slight tingle of a nearby rift going from the palm of my right hand almost to my elbow. I shook my arm a bit to try and rid myself of the icky feeling. I knew it was just over a few fields and hills behind the farm, but I honestly did _not_ want to deal with any more demons today.

The door to the farmhouse opened again and out stepped Emily, Solas, and Cassandra. Emily smiled and walked over to me, clapping me on the shoulder gently.

“We gon get ourselves some horses!” She said in some ridiculous country-like accent which almost made me cringe, but I just sighed at her craziness.

“ _We_ will have horses given to us, but we have yet to gain enough for the Inquisition’s forces. There are a few tasks that require our attention before Master Dennet feels safe enough to send his horses all the way to Haven.” Cassandra interjected, looking to Emily with a tired scowl. “We need to take care of some demented wolves, and to scout places for watches towers around this area.”

“Alright, then. Lets get to it!” Margaret exclaimed, hopping up and pacing in anticipation – _geez, she seems quite hyper today! What a nerd._

Cassandra turned away for a moment in thought, which made me raise my eyebrows slightly. “I have been thinking. There are much greater things at stake that require our attention. I believe, that with the addition of these horses, we should begin our trek back to Haven as soon as we can.”

“Wait a second, Cassandra!” Emily spoke, looking to the Seeker with confusion. “There’s a whole bunch of stuff we gotta do! Like getting rid of those Templar and mage people, and now these tasks that Dennet gave us, so there’s a lotta stuff that we can do before we head back!”

“Yeah, we can’t just leave, now that we know what needs to be done!” Connor added, his eyebrows knitted in question.

“You need to look at it in perspective.” Solas interrupted the conversation before it could turn into a nasty argument. “Yes, there are many things that need to be completed around the Hinterlands, but they do not require our personal involvement. I believe what the Seeker is inferencing is that there are others who can do these tasks while we complete more important things that do require your personal attention, Herald.”

“That is correct, Solas. Thank you.” Cassandra sighed. “Now that the Hinterlands has a strong Inquisition hold on it – I know of three camps, plus the new spot we passed earlier – we can safely dispatch more of Commander Cullen’s soldiers, and they can complete these tasks in our stead.”

We all stayed silent for a while, until Varric pipped up. “Okay, that’s fair. My only concern – how in the Maker’s name am I to ride a full-sized horse?” His words made us all laugh.

“You can ride with one of us, Varric.” Margret quipped, laughing all the time, which just made Varric red in the face and laugh along.

“Well, I guess if we all agree…” Emily began as the small laughing fit died down. “I guess we should saddle up some horses and head back home.”


	16. Sixteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahahaha... once again, I rise from the depths to throw you another chapter! I'll try to bang out another in the next few days, but I can't really promise anything! And plus, I have my exams in a few weeks, so I'll be swamped with them, too...
> 
> But either way, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Very dialogue heavy (as usual lol) and it begins to set up some plot pieces :)

With the addition to the horses to our team, it only took us about three and a half days to return to Haven compared to the seven it took us to travel there in the first place. Poor Varric, with his stubby legs, rode behind Solas and complained the whole way (but in a funny way!).

It was about midday by the time we rode up to the gates of Haven, dismounting and putting away the horses in the meagre stables the Inquisition had set up. It was weird to be back in a ‘civilised’ area of this world, after being in the wilds for what, almost two weeks? Honestly, thinking about, we’ve only been in Thedas from probably a month our time – I still don’t really know how to tell time, here, and it _frustrates_ me – but it feels like I’ve been here for years!

Settling the horses with what they need in the stables, and Cassandra informing some scouts nearby that stable-hands would be needed from now on, we all started our way through the gates into Haven.

After entering the gates, Cassandra stopped us momentarily. “I would like to see you, Herald, and your sister in the War room within the hour to debrief your advisors about the situation in the Hinterlands. If all goes well, we may be headed to Val Royeaux within the next day or two.” Nodding to her words, we all split up – Varric heading to the tavern, Solas towards his cabin, Cassandra towards the Chantry, and that left our group of misfits heading back towards our cabin.

There wasn’t much that changed in Haven since we’ve been gone. It’s still cold and covered in snow, and like, everything’s where it should be, but there seems to be _way_ more people than when we left.

“Is it just me, or did like the population of this town multiply since we’ve left?” Margaret pondered, voicing my same thoughts as we casually walk along the dirt paths. I nodded with a small chuckle, and beside me Emily seems to be in deep confusion.

“…what…” Emily muttered, looking around to see that – yeah, there’s way more people than when we first arrived here. “Wow, I didn’t even notice. I’m just tired man…”

Connor chuckled at her. “It’s probably more refugees. You saw all those people in the Hinterlands, right? Its very possible that people from there and all over came _here_ to try and escape all the fighting that seems to be going on.”

“…Yeah, and it only gets worse from here…” I mumbled under my breath, watching them all slink ahead of me, leaving me behind the group to stew in my thoughts.

~

Everyone dropped off their bags as we reached our cabin, and only relaxed for a few minutes until we had to go our separate ways once again. Connor was going to find Varric in the tavern for lunch and then training, Margaret was headed down to the training grounds to see if she could find her trainer – a kind elven woman named Athras, I found out through conversing with my dear friend – and Emily and I were headed up to the Chantry like Cassandra requested.

“Do you have any tips on how to handle them?” Emily asked out of the blue as we kept a casual walk along the path to the Chantry. I knitted my eyebrows for a moment in thought.

“Honestly, kid? I don’t have any clue. I remember the big parts of the game, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember small parts like this. Just try to voice your opinions – even if you don’t know much about Thedas and its politics, they’ll still value your words and input nonetheless.” I explained, still trying to think. “I don’t think this meeting is too crucial, if I’m right. It’s really just you telling them what happened, and then they’ll tell you what to do next.”

Emily pondered this for a moment, until we rounded a corner where the Chantry was visible. “Okay. I think I can do that. Thanks, Kands!”

As we both continued on, I began to notice the commotion in front of the Chantry’s doors – a large group what looked like a mix of refugees and soldiers were arguing or something, and I could see Cullen’s golden hair standing in the middle of one group, trying to be the mediator. With a look of concern on her face, Emily picked up her pace to see what was going on.

“Your kind killed the Most Holy!” A man in plated armor - a Templar, if I remembered correctly – shouted venomously at another man, this one clad in green robes with a staff on his back. Emily and I stared from the outermost part of the mismatched circle of people – a clear division between the apparent Templars and apostates.

“Lies – your kind let her die!” The apostate spit back.

At this, the Templar man scowled. Reaching for his sword at his hip, he began lunging for the apostate in front of him. “That is enough out of you, Mage!”

“Enough!” That’s where Commander Cullen stepped in – separating the two men, making them return to their respective groups.

With a look of hurt, the Templar turned to Cullen. “Knight-Captain!”

“That is _not_ my title!” Cullen began, looking to both the men in turn. “We are no longer Templars – we are all part of the Inquisition.”

“And _what_ does that mean, exactly?” A man drawled, walking closer to Cullen – it was Chancellor Roderick, upon closer inspection. I scowled at the man in the Chantry robes, as did Cullen from my point of view.

“Back already, Chancellor? Haven’t you done enough?” Cullen muttered, as Roderick walked closer.

“I’m curious, Commander, as to how the Inquisition and its ‘Herald’ will restore order as promised.” Roderick looked to Cullen with a slight smirk. Poor Cullen shook his head in annoyance.

“Of course you are.” With a sigh, Cullen waved to the group gathered around him. “Back to your duties, all of you!” At the Commanders words, everyone dispersed – although some with questioning looks on their faces as they passed Emily and I.

“Should we talk to Cullen now?” Emily asked with a whisper as we began to walk towards the Chantry once more. I shook my head, motioning to Cullen and Roderick as they begun a heated discussion.

“Perhaps once he joins us in the war room. But let him handle this on his own for now.”

Entering the Chantry together, Emily took the lead as we walked towards the back room – the War room. There seemed to be only us and a few Chantry Sisters in the building at the moment. They didn’t even seem to notice our presence and continued on with their business – except for Mother Giselle, who nodded politely as we passed. Unlike the first time I stepped foot in this Chantry, I didn’t dawdle to look at the interesting architecture and followed Emily to the back room where the Josephine, Leliana, and Cassandra were surely waiting for us.

“Welcome back to Haven, Herald, Lady Kandice.” Josephine greeted us with a smile as the door closed behind us with a soft ‘thud’.

“It’s good to be back, Ambassador, but please – you needn’t refer to me as such titles, simply Kandice is fine, like I told you before.” I greeted her in return, a sheepish smile on my face as Josephine nodded and made some kind of note on her clipboard – probably my preference of name, given the situation.

“From what Cassandra has told us so far, you were successful in reaching the Hinterlands and setting up an Inquisition influence, yes?” Leliana asked, getting the meeting off to a start. Emily nodded, getting into the swing of things – walking closer and leaning next to the war table itself, as everyone else in the room seemed to follow. With a small smile, I gravitated to the back of the room, choosing to lean against the wall.

“Yeah, we were able to do just that, Leliana – and we passed Mother Giselle on our way here, so she got here safely, that’s good. Has she given you the names of the Chantry members who would be amenable to a meeting in Val Royeaux?” Emily answered the spy master – tactfully, if I could say so myself – and my lovely sister seemed to be doing a great job at this whole ‘Herald’ business.

Before anyone else got a chance to move on to other business, Cullen burst through the door with a pissed off look, and the door slammed shut behind him. He stalked over to his normal spot on the other side of Leliana, and sighed.

“Is… everything alright, Commander?” Josephine asked reluctantly – Cullen still seemed out of it, combing his hands through his hair and sighing once more.

“Just fine, Josephine. That bloody Chancellor though… It’s nothing I cannot handle.” Cullen muttered, but from my view he seemed to working through this dispute better. He turned to Emily, clearing his throat. “To work?”

“Yes, that is a good idea Commander. As you were asking before, Herald – yes, indeed, Mother Giselle did give us the names of who might be amenable to a meeting. Perhaps… yes, I think it should be the Herald to address them directly in Val Royeaux.” Leliana mused, but Cullen and Cassandra were having none of it.

“That would be quite to dangerous, Leliana!” Cassandra spluttered, looking to the woman in question. “Think of the danger and risk for the Herald! If anything were to happen to her, how would be close the Breach?”

Leliana just shook her head at the Seeker, but Josephine seemed to hum at the Nightingale’s previous words. “It would not be too detrimental for the Herald to address the clerics, I should think.”

“Yeah, I think that could work.” Emily suddenly stated, looking around the table. “Something that Mother Giselle told me in the Hinterlands was that the only real reason they are so against our Inquisition is that they’re all unified in opinion. If I were to just make _some_ of them believe in our cause, it could make them all start to wonder. And I think what Leliana is trying to get, is that it might mean some more, and something personal, if the actual ‘Herald of Andraste’ were to speak to them about our cause.”

Everyone else in the room seemed sort of stunned at her words, myself included, but I allowed myself to let a small smile of encouragement grace my lips, even if she couldn’t see me from her position. No one really said anything, until Josephine cleared her throat to get all the attention on her.

“I think this matter is settled then, yes? The Herald will address the Chantry clerics in Val Royeaux, on behalf of the Inquisition.” Josephine smiled.

“I shall still travel with the Herald, just in case of anything we have not planned for.” Cassandra stated, not even asking permission – mostly just demanding in a gentler way. Emily and the advisors seemed to agree with this notion.

“Is there anything else we need to discuss, or shall I adjourn this meeting?” Leliana asked. At her words, Emily seemed to perk up.

“Oh, that’s right! I just remembered!” Emily exclaimed, looking to Cullen. “There was a list that Cassandra made that needs to be done in the Hinterlands – that’s why we were able to return to Haven so quickly after getting there. Do you think you’d have enough men to spare to send down there and settle everything that needs settled?” After Emily fished explaining, I noticed that Cassandra had taken her list – I didn’t even know that she wrote one! – and the Seeker passed it Cullen for to look it over.

“Yes, there should be enough trained soldiers that I can send down to aid in these tasks. It should be no problem, Herald.” Cullen answered, folding the page neatly and tucking it into his jacket.

“I might be able to spare half a dozen or so of my scouts if you would accept them, Commander. They may be useful for anything you might need.” Leliana added with a smile. Or whatever she was doing with her lips that looked like a smile… I don’t think she’s been capable of smiling for a while, now…

Shaking my head to focus on the now, and not mu thoughts, I must have missed Cullen either rejecting or accepting her spies, but oh well. Everything seemed to be settled for now, and Emily was approaching me, so I assumed we could leave.

As we were headed out the door, Josephine called to us. “Oh, Herald! By the way, you should convene with us for tomorrow’s meeting – then we might know when you should leave for Val Royeaux!” Emily nodded with a smile, and soon we left the war room to walk down the dimly lit Chantry and back into the streets of Haven.

 “So… we basically have a few free days in Haven to relax, before we get on the road again?” I asked with a smile, and Emily smiled back.

“I think so, if that’s what Josephine meant. I think I’ll sleep in tonight…”

I chuckled at her words. “I don’t think you’ll be able to… Didn’t Josephine just tell you that you needed to attend a meeting in the morning?” Emily just sighed and groaned at my words, like the child she is~ “Oh, don’t pout! You’re an important person, so you can’t just ‘do things’ now; You gotta fit into a schedule that works with everyone and everything else.”

“Oh, I know. No need to go all diplomatic on me and all that jazz. Doesn’t mean that I can’t complain every now and then…” She muttered, as we continued on down the dirt path of Haven. I was leading us towards the Tavern – it was probably close to supper time, right? Meh, who knows. Either way, Connor and Varric were sure to be there, and Margaret might have made her way there if she’s finished with her training for the day – we’ll know when we get there!

It didn’t take too long to get there, and like I suspected, all three were there with bowls of what I assumed to be stew in front of them, paired with some fresh-looking bread. Emily went to sit down, as I ordered both of our food from Flissa at the front counter then went to join them all. All in all, it was a mostly uneventful evening, other than Varric telling some stories from some of his weird adventures or something like that – I wasn’t listening that well – and by the end of the evening I made it back to our cabin and into my bed. God, was it great to sleep on something _other_ than the ground for the first time in what felt like ages!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is just a side note.... are people still reading this? I can't really tell if they're continuing on to the newest chapters, or just reading the first few...
> 
> If you are reading this still, and you are enjoying it, could you please let me know? And if you have any comments or tips or even any suggestions for this book, feel free to leave those as well!
> 
> Sorry for the rambling, and I hope that y'all have a good day~


	17. Seventeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahaha! Another chapter? Simply one day after the last?? What is this maddness??? Lol
> 
> I bring some more plot, more filler at the same time! Sorry for the once again slow moving pace of this story, but i feel that it needs to be established before all the action and drama begins! I like to have strong foundation that i can build off for the coming chapters :)
> 
> We relax a bit in Haven following our return, with some more magical training, and then we are off to val royeaux!
> 
> Like always, my dears, i hope you enjoy this chapter and have a lovely day/night/whatever lol :)
> 
> Also I'd like to thank all of you who've left comments so far... They do really wonders on my motivation lol :)

I woke up with a groan as a beam of sunlight hit my face, waking me up before I wanted to, and preventing me from falling back asleep. With another small groan, I rolled out of bed – and forgetting about physics and its laws – and fell on the ground with a small ‘thud’ in a heap of blankets. Startled, I sat up to make sure I hadn’t woken anyone up from my small fall. All seemed to be good, and I could even hear small snores coming from Connor’s bed.

Standing up to full height now, I started looking around for my clothes for the day – since I was simply in a light cotton shirt and my underwear, or whatever cotton menace these underthings were called - since I had needed to find some kind of replacement before our departure to the Hinterlands, given it was not at all sanitary to keep reusing the same pair. Eugh! I still had my bra from ‘our world’, but I figured I would need to get something new since it was starting to have this bad smell – but that was for another day. The only clothes on the ground were the ones I took off last night, and everything else was in my bag from the Hinterlands – and they were probably no better off on the cleanliness mark. _Oof, I really needed to do some laundry!_

Squinting, I wobbled over to the dressers near the door. _Maybe there’s some clean clothes in them?_ Opening up one of the drawers, I exclaimed silently in surprise. There was a bunch of various clothing items, all looking freshly cleaned and folded. I pulled out a light green tunic, holding it up for reference, to see if it would fit. Surprisingly, it looked like it would. Slipping it on over the light shirt I had on, it felt very comfortable. Next, I looked for a pair of pants – after a few trial and errors, I found a pair in a dark brown color. Happy with my outfit for the day, I picked up my outer jacket from the floor, and my gloves from the side table, I pulled both garments on and grabbed my staff from beside the door, leaving the cabin to be met with a chilly wind.

Shivering and trying to pull my jacket closer, I walked out into the pale morning light with no real purpose or destination in mind. My staff was strapped firmly to my back, and with a small thought, my feet began to steer me towards Solas’s cabin – maybe he some training exercises or something he could teach me today, seeing as there wasn’t really much to do today.

Walking along the dirt paths in Haven, it must have been quite early given the fact that I didn’t see many people awake – those I did see seemed to be either some of Leliana’s spies or scouts or some of Cullen’s soldiers, all marching about doing their jobs in this early morning. I spotted the odd villager or refugee here and there, but it was mostly workers who were at this apparent god-forsaken hour.

It didn’t take too long to reach the small outcropping of cabins where Solas resided, and I spotted the elf in question leaning against his cabin, simply staring up into the sky and watching the Breach. I walked up to him with a small smirk on my face – _Is all he does in Haven is look at that damned hole in the sky with a quizzical look?_ – but shook my head to rid it of these thoughts. As I got closer, he seemed to notice my presence and turned to greet me.

“Good day, Kandice. Do what do I owe this pleasure of seeing you so early in the morn?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I was wondering if you had anything more to teach me, about magic and things. I’m getting better than when I first woke up, but I know that I can always be better.” I answered meekly, hoping that he wouldn’t outright refuse to help – but who knows, maybe he pities me, and he’ll help this poor, useless mage. I shuffled my feet, waiting for his answer.

Solas seemed to hum at my words. “Yes, I think there may be a few things I could show you. I agree, there is much that can be improved.” I didn’t want to sigh at his words, for that could appear ungrateful of me, yet I couldn’t help the small twitch of my eyebrow of him basically saying that I sucked.

“Okay, thank you. Same place as last time?” This time I asked with a smile – the prospect of using and learning magic still made me giddy, even if I had to learn it from Mr. Egg Head McGee over here. Solas nodded at my question, grabbed his staff from behind him – which I never noticed before – and started down the path towards the gates of Haven, and eventually out into the clearing in the forest.

Once again, it didn’t take too long to reach our destination. After being in Haven for a while now, even if it’s been a little bit less than a month, everything has begun to familiarize itself in my brain, and its become such habit and memory to return to places easier and without much work – I’ve honestly almost accepted this world as my current reality, but I know that I can never let my guard down, lest anyone learn what I know. I shook my head to focus myself, flashing a small smile to Solas.

“What shall we do today?” I pondered, unlatching my staff at giving a few test swings and swirls. It was a standard ice staff, or Winter staff, if you’re naming things according to their school of magic, and it was really nice, even if it was a bit simple – it had a basic wooden handle, with a small metal cage on the top, which housed a blue crystal which must be the magic focus of the whole staff. It was mine, and I liked it.

“You have a good focus of being able to cast your magic in the midst of battle, that I can tell you for sure.” Solas began, pacing in front of me slowly. “You use magic like I have not seen before – it is not so much a trained skill on your part. It is like you think of what to do, and then it happens – like magic. I like to use the example of what happened when you cast a barrier for the first time. You had never cast that specific spell before, if I am not mistaken?”

“Yeah, I guess. And no, I hadn’t cast a barrier before then, but now I can do them with ease. Like you said, at that moment I just wanted to protect Emily, and ‘poof’ a barrier appeared to protect her.” I muttered, wondering where he was going with this.

“Exactly, just as I thought. Even if you have not been a mage for a long time, your ability to think of what you want to do, and simply be able to do it, gives you an innate ability to learn magic at such an accelerated pace. I am still quite surprised at what you have been able to learn and achieve thus far.” Solas noted, continuing his slow walk. “But it also has a small downside. Yes, you may be improving in battle, but to a trained mage, it is sloppy work. I am thankful that you have yet to battle some seasoned mages – those apostates were nothing in the sake of skill and finesse. You simply think of what you want to do, then do it, without much thought to strategy or keeping yourself from exerting too much energy. That, I believe, is what you should work on today – learning to focus your magic and learn to fine-tune your abilities so that you could potentially face a seasoned mage yourself without much difficulty.”

I blanked on his words for a moment. “So… basically, you want me to meditate.”

Solas shook his head with a small chuckle. “No, not just that. There is a small exercise that I can teach you that can bring your mind and magic into focus at the same time – a dance, if you would.”

I raised my eyebrows at the man, but he just chuckled again and grabbed his staff, moving closer to the center of the clearing.

Clearing his throat, he looked to me. “Watch, and learn, _da’len._ ”

Rolling my eyes at the elvish, I did what he asked. He had his staff in front of him, but he didn’t move for a few moments. I furrowed my eyebrows at him, wondering what he was waiting for. But soon my eyes widened in surprise and awe at his graceful movements – I don’t even know how I could begin to explain them.

Like he said, it was like a dance. There were some yoga-looking moves, where his arms would stretch above him, or behind him, still gripping firmly to his staff. The closest comparison I could think of was that fire dance in ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ that Aang and Zuko did, yet there was only one party in this dance, and Solas seemed to keep going in a full circle, twirling his staff. As soon as it seemed to begin, he was back in his beginning position, and with a powerful thrust, he stabbed his staff into the ground which created a beautiful display of magic sparks into the air. Still in awe, I clapped at his surprisingly amazing performance.

Solas just chuckled once again. “Now, it is your turn to try.”

~

I was _exhausted_! It took me forever to do the same steps Solas seemed to do with such simplicity and grace. I managed to get the first five or six steps – after _much_ trial and error – and there seemed to be dozens more that I needed to learn and memorize! I swear Solas did this, just so he could see me suffer; I swear I could hear him chuckle at every misstep or stumble.

It was getting dark out, so Solas said we could stop for the night, but to meet him here in the morning to keep working on the exercises. I bid him goodnight and walked slowly back to Haven. Again, there wasn’t many people out with the sky growing dark. The exception was a few soldiers still training and running drills as I passed through the training grounds and through the gate into Haven.

 _I might as well go to the tavern and grab a quick supper before I head off to bed._ I mused, making my way to the well-lit building. Like most nights, you could hear the boisterous crowd from within a few feet from the entrance, and it brought a small smile to my lips thinking of how that, at this time of the night, many didn’t have any responsibilities and could just enjoy their lives. Entering the warm building, I walked up to Flissa and ordered my usual – a bowl of stew with some bread, along with a tankard of water. Looking around, I spotted Emily and Varric at a table in our usual corner, so grabbing my food from Flissa with a small thanks, I made my way over to the two.

“There you are! Where have you been all day?!” Emily exclaimed as I sat down, Varric simply chuckling at her outburst.

“Training.” I stated simply, taking a bite of the bread. “Solas is an ass, by the way.”

“Just realizing that now, Silver?” Varric mused, taking a drink from his own tankard – ale, or some other alcohol, I presumed.

I just shook my head at the dwarf, continuing to eat my supper. “How did the meeting go this morning, kid?”

“Oh, good enough. There were some small things that needed to be taken care of that we forget yesterday, and Leliana told me we would be leaving for Val Royeaux in two days time.”

I nodded my head at her words. “That’s good. Gives me a few days to train some more, at least.”

“Yeah, tomorrow, I get to train with Cullen and his soldiers! It’ll be different, since I’ve only been trained by Cassandra so far! And from what I saw of Margaret in the training grounds today, she’s getting real good with her small knives!” Emily rambled with a smile on her face.

“Daggers, kid. They’re called daggers.” I shook my head at her, but she simply hummed in disregard. “Hey Varric – if we’re talking about training, how’s Connor doing?”

“Ace? He’s doing all right. He can hit things, sure, but he needs to learn to hit them _accurately._ Not gonna do much damage if you hit a templar in the arm!” Varric chuckled, thinking of the man in question. I just laughed lightly along as well.

Life in Haven was becoming a routine – and that was good, for me at least, because it was something I could control and manage.

The next two days followed that simple routine. I would get up much earlier than everyone else, go to the forest clearing and train with Solas, and to finish my night, I would go to the tavern with a mixture of my four friends – Varric, Emily, Connor, and Margaret – have a good meal, then head off to bed. That second day before we left, though, Solas and I only trained for half the day – saying I should get some rest before we left – so exiting the clearing I found Margaret with her daggers trainer, so I joined in with them for the rest of the day. It was an exhausting few days, but it was good to begin to feel confident in my skills as a mage.

I could already begin to feel the effects of that dance Solas taught me. When I would think about casting any spells, I felt calmer than I did before – no rush of adrenaline like I normally would during a battle. It begun to clear my mind, and like Solas said, I could begin to think clearer on the intent and purpose of my spell casting.

That final morning in Haven, I woke up early like normal, except I woke everyone up with me instead of letting them sleep in.

“Rise and shine, kiddos! Time to go on some more adventures!” I yelled out, startling them all awake, and each one gave me death stares and groans in turn. I just rolled my eyes at them. I’d picked out my outfit the night before, along with packing my bag, so it didn’t take too long to get ready that morning – and it was a good thing too, because Cassandra most likely wanted to leave as soon as we could. It was going to take _at least_ seven days by horseback to reach Val Royeaux, and that was if we didn’t meet any obstacles like bandits or Fade rifts.

It didn’t take too long for the rest of them to get ready, so we were soon walking out of our cabin once again, and towards the gates of Haven we went. Just like last time, Solas, Varric, and Cassandra were there waiting for us. Emily simply smiled meekly at Cassandra, who shook her head with a sigh – yet the Seeker held a small smile on her lips – and we went to prep our horses for the journey.

Val Royeaux, here we come!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT (as of 011/01/19): Hey there guys! I've been going back and changing a few details that you may or may not have noticed! All my own characters have been aged up to better fit some themes I want to incorporate later! Instead of being around 18-19, everyone is between 22-24 now. I figured, if we wanna see some romance in this book (which I would really love to do) an age gap of almost 20 years would be verrrry awkward! (Considering I see Blackwall as around 37 or 38, and Bull and Dorian both being around 35 or 36 (Or I might make Dorian 34, idk yet lol)). But this still might change, considering how I - and you guys! - feel about all this! If there's anything you would suggest a change in, age wise, please tell me now so I don't have too much of a web to untangle once we start to learn more backstories, okay? Thank you all in advance, and I hope this helps some of y'all in visualizing stuff lol.
> 
> JUST FOR REFERENCE TOO:  
> Kandice - 24 (February bday) - she has the Anchor on her RIGHT hand  
> Connor - 23 (August bday)  
> Margaret - 23 (October bday)  
> Emily - 22 (March bday) - she has the Anchor on her LEFT hand
> 
> If you see any inconsistencies anywhere, PLEASE tell me! I try to correct my own work, but sometimes in can be a but difficult all by my wee self lol. 
> 
> Thank you all for taking time to read this long spiel lol.


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